ICONFISCATIO 


UNJUST  LAWS 


LIBRARY 

OF  THK 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


OIKT  OK 


1895         >!*9 

Accessions  No. STf  7 /  -        O 


ran 
1U7BRSIT7 


UNJUST  LAWS  WHICH  GOVERN  WOMAN. 


PROBATE    CONFISCATION. 


BY 

MRS.    J.   W.    STOW, 

M 

AUTHOR  AND  LECTURER. 


"  I've  had  wrongs 
To  stir  a  fever  in  the  blood  of  age, 
Or  make  the  infant's  sinews  strong  as  steel. 


jJFottrtf)  IStu'tfon. 

"^SU^L. 

'0?  TM^^f* 

[TJNIVBRSII7J 

^^•CXpQTt^^^ 

rTTTTTTiTTr^fTm  nnTirnrf^"1  AUTHOR. 

1879. 


COPYRIGHT,  1879. 
BY  MRS.  J.  W.  8TOWE. 

[All  Rights  Reserved.'] 


Stereotyped  and  Printed  by 

Rand>  Avery,  and  Company, 

117  Franklin  Street, 

Boston. 


TO 

MY      FATHER 

(Eighty-one  years  of  age), 

STfjt's  80oh 

IS    AFFECTIONATELY    DEDICATED. 


1  Long  life  implies  virtuous  habits:  it  is  a  real  honor.' 


FIEST  PKEFACE. 


Casus  belli. 

WHY  do  I  write  this  book  ?  Why  do  I  not  do  a  purely 
womanly  deed,  and  suffer  in  silence?  Why  do  I  refuse  to 
turn  the  other  cheek  when  one  is  smitten  to  a  red-hot 
flame  with  injustice  and  inhuman  oppression?  Why? 
My  answer  is,  "  If  I  did  not  speak,  the  very  stones  would 
cry  out  against  such  a  state  of  things  as  is  still  tolerated 
in  this  confiscation  prize-tribunal,  misnamed  a  court  of 
justice ;  tolerated  in  the  white  light  of  the  nineteenth 
century ;  tolerated  with  the  spread-eagle  glorification 
about  the  justness  of  the  laws."  I  cry  out  because  I  am 
hurt,  wronged,  outraged,  insulted. 

"I've  had  wrongs 
To  stir  a  fever  in  the  blood  of  age, 
Or  make  the  infant's  sinews  strong  as  steel." 

I  have  been  plundered  of  my  fortune,  time,  and  good 
feelings.  I  have  been  reduced  to  «s  itate  of  beggary, 
because  I  could  not  handle  my  private  property  — -  property 
which  the  estate  owns  not  a  farthing  in.  The  estate,  I 
believe,  has  been  held  undistributed  —  when  there  was 
no  just  cause  for  delay  —  for  months,  with  a  percentage 

5 


6  PREFACE. 

accumulating  on  debts  at  the  rate  of  many  hundreds  of 
dollars  per  month.  In  over  a  year  and  a  half,  there  never 
has  been  a  published  account  of  the  condition  of  the 
estate  rendered  by  the  executors,  who  are  acting  without 
bonds.  Tkis  is  legal  justice,  approved  of  by  the  autocrat 
of  the  Probate  Court. 

I  would  strike  at  the  vitals  of  this  hydra-headed  mon- 
strosit3r  —  this  thieving  court  —  which  sequesters,  for  the 
benefit  of  itself  and  its  unscrupulous  accomplices,  the 
substance  of  the  widow  and  the  fatherless,  and  the  babes 
out  of  the  mother's  bosom,  even  claiming  them  while 
they  are  yet  in  embryo  beneath  her  heart. 

Call  ye  this  justice?  Accursed  be  such  justice,  and  the 
framers  of  such  diabolical  justice !  Bury  it  and  them  out 
of  sight,  in  the  lowest  Gehenna  and  the  deepest  sea  of 
Sodom ! 

Some  of  these  chapters  have  been  written  in  bitterness, 
some  in  mirth.  The  ludicrous  will  blossom  out,  often- 
times, through  the  sables  of  grief  and  the  hot  shot  of 
injustice.  The  gloomiest  sky  cannot  always  weep.  The 
maddest  tempest  cannot  alwa}*s  rage.  The  sun  will  shine, 
the  flowers  will  bloom,  the  birds  will  sing,  and  the 
south  wind  will  blow. 

Portions  of  them  have  appeared  from  time  to  time  in 
the  "Woman's  Journal. "  If  the  perusal  of  them  will 
beget  thought  —  if  thought  will  beget  action  —  if  action 
will  beget  reformation  —  then  they  have  not  been  written 
in  vain. 

I  make  no  apologies  for  errors  committed.  I  have 
taken  my  texts  from  authority.  If  I  am  strong  in  my 
prejudices,  I  am  honest  in  my  convictions. 

SAN  FRANCISCO,  March  15,  1876, 


SECOND  PEEFAOE. 


Meo  periculo. 

Do  I  write  these  pages  because  I  have  no  love,  admira- 
tion, and  respect  for  noble  manhood  ?  Nay,  verily !  There 
is  not  a  creature  living  that  bends  the  knee  and  bares  the 
brow  in  loyal  homage  to  the  nobility  of  manhood  more 
deferentially  than  I  do.  Purity  of  character,  genius, 
ability,  and  high  attainments,  are  held  by  me  in  the  high- 
est reverence.  When  I  skim  over  mountains,  or  plunge 
through  them,  after  the  tireless  iron  horse ;  when  I  look 
down  upon  Rome  in  miniature,  from  the  dome  of  St. 
Peter's  ;  when  I  see  the  airy  thread  that  unites  Brooklyn 
and  New  York,  inwrought  in  every  fibre  with  brain-power 
and  masterly  skill ;  when  I  see  the  beautiful  ship  upon 
the  wave,  and  remember  the  strong  cable  beneath  it  that 
brings  the  Old  World  within  speaking  distance,  —  I  ex- 
claim, "  How  godlike  is  man  !  How  wonderful  his  daring ! 
II  ow  marvellous  the  result !  How  the  whole  world  would 
lapse  into  its  primitive  state,  without  his  firm  hand  and 
steady  brain  brought  to  bear  upon  the  Archimedean  lever  !  " 

Do  I  descend  into  the  depths  with  drag-net  and  muck- 
rake, and  bring  hidden  things  of  a  disagreeable  nature  to 


8  PREFACE. 

light,  with  the  expectation  that  I  shall  win  admiration  by 
so  doing?  Ah,  no!  I  am  not  so  blind  as  that.  But 
some  one  must  bear  the  cross,  the  flame,  the  opprobrium ; 
some  one  must  enter  the  fiery  furnace  with  bare  uncovered 
feet;  someone  must  use  "strong  language"  (it  is  the 
only  suitable  and  appropriate  drapery  for  a  reformer  to 
clothe  thought  in) ,  to  rouse  the  careless,  the  indifferent, 
the  supine.  I  should  be  traitor  to  truth,  were  I  to  sup- 
press the  utterance  of  it,  and  to  allow  error  to  go  unre- 
buked.  I  dare  stand  firm  for  right,  firm  for  truth,  and 
firm  for  duty.  Evil  must  be  combated  with  unfaltering 
firmness.  The  want  of  moral  courage  to  resist  wrong, 
injustice,  and  tyranny,  at  all  hazard,  is  fatal  to  all  re- 
form. 

My  tongue  shall  be  palsied  by  no  fear  to  offend,  no 
desire  to  please,  no  dependence  upon  the  judgment  of 
others.  I  walk  by  my  own  God-given  light,  not  by  the 
reflected  ray  of  any  one  else's  lantern.  I  shall  call  things 
by  their  right  names.  I  shall  not  veneer  a  lie  into  a  false- 
hood, nor  a  theft  into  a  trifling  peccadillo.  I  shall  press 
forward  with  a  firm  step,  never  faltering,  never  turning  to 
the  right  nor  to  the  left ;  never  sheathing  my  sword  of 
truth,  but  sharpening  it  upon  every  rock  of  injustice  that 
obstructs  my  path,  with  all  the  fervor  with  which  Shy  lock 
whetted  his  krrife  to  sever  the  pound  of  flesh.  Wrong 
and  injustice  have  brought  me  to  this :  therefore  I  have 
set  my  face  against  wrong  and  injustice  in  a  perpetual 
and  never-ending  warfare  —  so  long  as  I  am  able  to  take 
the  field  and  do  battle.  This  is  my  mission. 

I  have  made  an  unqualified  attack  upon  this  leprouc- 
livered  Probate  Court,  and  I  never  intend  to  abandon  tho 
siege  so  long  as  I  am  able  to  wield  a  pen  or  utter  a  word. 


PREFACE.  9 

To  the  great  cardinal  principles  of  right  against  might,  1 
have  pledged  my  undying  fealty  —  a  fealty  to  which  I  am 
rendering  the  best  effort  of  my  life.  I  shall  stereotype  the 
cause  I  represent  with  action,  and  clothe  that  action  in 
heroic  habiliments.  Against  this  solid  masculine  barrier 
which  obstructs  the  highway  of  woman,  made  solid  by 
subjugation,  by  legal  ostracism,  by  coercion,  by  personal 
outrage,  led  on  by  the  Hotspur  of  absolutism,  I  will  hurl 
the  javelin  of  ridicule,  the  logic  of  truth,  the  broadsword 
of  relentless  warfare,  the  arrows  of  conviction,  barbed 
with  untiring  zeal  and  persistent  energy,  until  the  withes 
of  man's  tyranny  are  bent  and  broken  asunder,  and 
woman's  deliverance  fully  accomplished. 

I  am  ruled  by  despots,  in  spite  of  protest,  resistance, 
and  defiance  ;  and  the  only  weapon  I  have  to  hurl  at  the 
usurpers  is  free  speech. 

Readers  of  the  first  edition  of  "  Probate  Confiscation  " 
have  urged  me  to  modify  the  general  tone  of  the  subjects 
treated  in  this  revised  edition.  That  I  cannot  do  con- 
scientiously, for  I  have  not  written  to  tickle  the  fancy,  or 
lull  the  guilty,  steeped  in  luxury  and  selfishness,  into  a 
Lethean  sleep,  whose  waking  is  death.  Let  them,  the 
would-be  modifiers,  be  scourged  for  nearly  three  years  by 
a  corrupt  system,  as  I  have  been,  and  then  let  them  say 
whether  it  should  be  qualified  or  not.  For,  until  they 
have  trodden  the  wine-press  of  this  probate  abomination, 
they  wot  not  of  its  horrors.  The  opinions  herein  ex- 
pressed I  stand  read}'  to  prove,  if  proof  is  called  for,  by 
facts,  stubborn  facts  ;  and  these  facts  cannot  be  explained 
away.  Every  reformer  must  fortify  the  position  taken, 
b}T  showing  examples  of  the  original  attitude  from  which 
society  has  gradually  emerged,  as  a  comparison  with  its 


10  PREFACE. 

present  condition,  if  he  would  provoke  inquiry  and  dis- 
cussion, without  which  reformation  is  impossible.  This 
I  have  done,  regardless  of  fear  or  favor. 

This  volume  is  prefaced  by  present  and  former  convic- 
tion in  which  I  have  earnestly  sought  to  make  the  whole 
subject  of  probate  practice  broader  than  personal  griev- 
ances. It  contains  a  record  of  truths,  such  as  I  am  will- 
ing to  meet  at  the  bar  of  final  judgment,  and  such  as 
will  place  the  present  condition  of  the  Probate  rv>urt, 
where  it  deserves  to  be  placed,  on  a  level  with  the  plagues 
of  Egypt. 

In  every  chapter  I  have  endeavored  to  show  the  bastard 
power  of  moneyed  might  and  sex-might  over  right,  and 
the  unjust  and  cruel  laws  made  by  man  for  the  subjuga- 
tion of  woman.  If  I  have  failed  to  do  so,  I  am  in  the 
same  deplorable  condition  that  the  boy  was,  who,  after 
his  first  attempt  at  drawing,  felt  it  necessary  to  write 
under  the  nondescript  effort,  "  Tliis  is  a  man!"  How- 
ever /  am  not  as  obliging  as  the  boy  was 

BOSION,  March  19, 1877. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER.  PAGE. 

L    BILL  AND  SPEECH .    13 

IL    A  PROTEST 19 

HE.    CONFISCATION .28 

IV.  MARY  JONES'S  PROBATE  EXPERIENCE     ....    36 

V.    THE  SCIENCE  OF  GOVERNMENT 46 

VI.    LETTER  OF  CREDIT 66 

VTT.    THE  JUST  LAWS  OF  CALIFORNIA 64 

VEIL  DISABILITIES  OF  WIVES  AND  WIDOWS     ....    73 

IX.    THE  LAW  LIBRARY 88 

X.    PROTECTION  AND  SUBORDINATION 97 

XI.  DOUBLE  LAWS  AND  VALUABLE  DOCUMENTS    .       .       .108 

XII.    BROTHERLY  LOVE .       .117 

X1TT.    INSOLVENT  ESTATE 128 

XIV.    MOTHER  AND  CHILD 136 

XV.    A  FATHER'S  EIGHTS 145 

XVI.    SPLIT-WOOD  AND  THIRDS 156 

XVII.     "  THRITEN'D  wu>  A  CONTINUENZE  " 166 

11 


12  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER.  PACK. 

XVin.  HUSBANDS  vs.  PIN-MONEY 177 

XIX.  PHILISTINES  vs.  WIDOWS 191 

XX.  THE  MERCANTILE  LIBRABY 200 

XXL  UNJUST  TAXATION 208 

XXH.  MARRIAGE  A  COPARTNERSHIP 221 

XXIEI.  THE  SUBJUGATION  OF  WIVES,  AND  MARTYRDOM  236 

XXIV.  THE  HISTORY  OF  A  PET  DOG 257 

XXV.  GlLROY  CONSOLIDATED  TOBACCO  COMPANY  .          .          .274 

XXVI.  IN  TRANSITU  UNDER  DIFFICULTIES       .              .       .290 

XXVTL  PROBATE  A  HIGH  COURT  OF  CHANCERY      .       .       .319 

XX Vm.  CONCLUDING  "REMARKS    ,                                            .  346 


EXTRACTS  FROM  THE  PRESS      .... 
An  Independent  chapter  on  COMPARATIVE  LAW. 


UFIVBRSIT7 


PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

A    BILL    FOB    THE    PROTECTION    OP    WIDOWS     AND 
ORPHANS. 

Jus  divinum. 

11  UPON  the  death  of  the  husband  or  wife,  one  half  of  the 
entire  community  property,  without  administration,  belongs  to 
the  surviving  husband  or  wife,  together  with  the  home  and  all 
pertaining  thereto,  and  the  other  half  to  their  children,  the 
issue  of  their  marriage  ;  and,  if  they  have  no  children  the 
issue  of  their  marriage,  then  the  entire  community  property 
belongs  to  the  surviving  husband  or  wife,  without  administra- 
tion; and  no  executor  appointed  in  the  will  of  said  husband  or 
wife  shall  have  the  management,  control,  or  disposition  of  the 
community  property,  or  any  portion  thereof.  The  surviving 
husband  or  wife  shall  have  the  sole  management,  care,  control, 
and  disposition  of  said  community  property,  as  a  surviving 
partner  has  the  sole  power  to  settle  the  affairs  of  a  copartner- 
ship at  the  death  of  one  of  the  partners.  The  surviving  hus- 
band or  wife  may  sell  and  dispose  of  so  much  of  the  community 
property  as  he  or  she  may  deem  for  the  best  interest  of  all 
parties  concerned,  or  as  may  be  necessary  to  pay  and  satisfy  all 
debts  and  demands  against  such  deceased  husband  or  wife. 

13 


14  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

After  the  settlement  of  said  debts  and  demands  against  said 
deceased,  and  the  collection  of  all  debts  due  to  the  deceased, 
the  residue  of  said  community  property,  aside  from  the  home- 
stead, or  home  and  its  belongings,  shall  be  distributed  and 
apportioned  as  herein  provided  ;  and,  further,  that  no  guardian 
appointed  by  the  deceased  husband  or  wife  shall  be  recognized 
in  law  without  the  consent  of  the  living  husband  or  wife. 

"  This  Act  shall  take  effect,  and  be  in  force,  from  and  after 
its  passage. 

"  SAN  FRANCISCO,  Jan.  3,  1876." 

MR.  SPEAKER  AND  MEMBERS  OF  THE  SENATE  ASSEMBLED. 

Gentlemen,  —  In  urging  the  passage  of  this  bill,  I 
am  but  pleading  the  cause  —  the  common  cause — of 
humanity,  as  well  as  of  all  widows  and  orphans. 
The  existing  Probate  Court,  when  brought  to  its 
extreme  test  of  legal  power,  has  more  of  the  charac- 
ter of  a  prize  tribunal  than  a  court  of  justice.  The 
widow's  estate  and  the  persons  of  her  children  are 
at  once  seized  by  the  court,  —  the  estate,  should  it 
be  insolvent,  for  the  sole  benefit  of  creditors ;  and 
the  orphans  to  be  placed  under  other  guardianship 
than  that  of  the  mother.  It  matters  not  how  capa- 
ble the  mother  may  be,  she  is  only  a  woman  ;  and, 
therefore,  some  fossilized  grandfather  on  the  pater- 
nal side  may  be  created  sole  dictator  and  controller 
of  the  children,  thus  setting  aside  the  power  of  the 
widow  as  parent.  Every  mother  should  be  able  to 
call  her  child  her  own  by  absolute  management  and 
control,  without  legal  interference. 

Dumas,  fils,  in  speaking  to  the  husband  of  the 
wife,  says,  "  Initiate  her  loyally  in  your  destiny, 


PROTECTION   OF   WIDOWS  AND   ORPHANS.          15 

human  and  divine,  in  order  that,  if  you  should  die 
before  your  children  be  capable  of  directing  them- 
selves, she  may  not  need  another  man  to  direct  them, 
but  may  constitute  herself  father  and  mother,  the 
loftiest  grade  to  which  woman,  brought  out  and 
developed  in  her  full  value,  can  arrive." 

The  Probate  Court  takes  from  its  victim  the  hard- 
earned  fruits  of  her  toil.  She  can  bring  no  bill 
against  the  estate  for  services  well  and  efficiently 
rendered  as  wife,  mother,  nurse,  and  housekeeper. 
All  persons  should  be  protected  in  their  industry. 
It  denies  justice  to  the  widow  by  cruelly  rejecting 
her  testimony,  even  though  she  be  the  sole  evidence 
of  value  in  the  case.  Every  person  should  enter  the 
courts  freely,  as  witness  or  party.  Until  this  is 
done  in  every  particular,  and  beyond  possibility  of 
question,  it  is  vain  to  say  there  is  justice  or  humanity 
for  widows  and  orphans  in  the  courts  of  the  land ; 
and  it  is  vain  to  say  that  all  mankind  are  free  and 
equal  in  this  nation,  or  that  this  is  a  republican 
form  of  government  in  any  true  sense.  No  one 
should  be  despoiled  of  any  of  their  rights ;  but  all 
should  be  free  and  equal  before  the  law.  Every 
citizen  in  the  country  should  feel  secure  in  individual 
rights,  by  being  secured  the  full  panoply  of  citizen- 
ship. In  vain  you  accord  to  them  the  right  of  sove- 
reignty, if  you  despoil  them  of  other  rights,  without 
which,  sovereignty  is  only  a  name.  The  law,  under 
probate  administration,  fixes  the  stigma  of  dishonesty 
upon  the  brow  of  every  widow.  It  assumes  that  she 


16  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

will  only  pay  the  debts  of  the  marriage-firm  by  com- 
pulsion ;  and  in  the  enforcement  of  this  monstroua 
supposition  she  loses  a  large  portion  of  her  property 
through  the  manipulations  of  the  Probate  Court, 
besides  the  loss  of  time,  and  the  wear  and  tear  of 
clothing  and  good  feeling.  She  walks  the  earth 
with  the  ever-conscious  weight  of  a  dead  hand  upon 
her,  if  the  husband  has  appointed  executors  and 
and  guardians  over  herself  and  children,  which  is 
stronger  and  more  potent  than  her  living  will. 

It  is  for  the  living  that  I  plead.  The  dead  are 
among  the  things  of  the  past.  We  cannot  foretell 
to-day  the  events  of  to-morrow.  We  are  not  om- 
niscient: then  why  cling  to  the  old  superstitious 
fallacy  of  carrying  out  every  whimsical  wish  of  the 
departed,  whose  horoscope  was  dimmed  by  the  gath- 
ering shadows  of  dissolution  ?  How  many  valuable 
lives  have  been  wrecked  through  this  slavish  adher- 
ence to  perfecting  and  completing  the  plans  of  the 
deceased!  Every  day  and  hour  brings  its  monitors. 
The  things  of  yesterday  are  old  to-day :  they  are 
among  the  events  of  the  past.  Life  is  the  present 
and  the  future.  The  past  is  dead  :  it  can  only  live 
in  history. 

The  wresting  from  the  widow  any  portion  of  the 
entire  management  and  control  of  her  half  of  the 
community  property  is  contrary  to  the  genius  of  all 
our  laws  and  institutions,  and  sets  at  nought  the  true 
relation  of  husband  and  wife  as  business  partners. 
To  concentrate  in  the  body  of  half  the  people,  the 


PROTECTION  OF   WIDOWS  AND   ORPHANS.          17 

power  to  make  and  administer  the  laws  without  the 
consent  of  the  other  half,  is  utterly  irreconcilable 
with  every  principle  of  free  government.  It  is  the 
very  definition  of  tyranny  itself;  and  I  trust  that 
this  honorable  House  will  ere  long  banish  it  forever, 
as  unworthy  of  longer  sufferance. 

"  The  victory  of  blood,  which  was  so  painfully  won 
a  hundred  years  ago,  must  be  confirmed  by  a  greater 
victory  of  ideas :  then  the  renowned  words  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  may  be  fulfilled,  and  'this  nation, 
under  God,  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom,  and 
government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the 
people,  the  whole  people.'  To  this  end  I  seek  no 
merely  formal  recognition  of  woman,  seething  with 
smothered  wrongs,  but  a  practical,  moral,  and  politi- 
cal recognition,  founded  on  common  rights,  knit 
together  by  common  interests,  and  inspired  by  com- 
mon faith ;  where  our  Constitution,  interpreted  anew, 
shall  be  a  covenant  with  life  and  a  league  with 
heaven,  and  liberty  for  all  shall  be  everywhere  not 
only  a  right  but  a  duty.  Then  will  equality,  long 
postponed,  become  the  master-principle  of  our  sys- 
tem, and  the  very  frontispiece  of  our  Constitution. 
Indemnity  for  past  wrongs  we  renounce ;  but  secur- 
ity for  the  present  and  future  we  pray.  This  is  the 
one  thing  needful.  This  is  the  charity  which  em- 
braces all  other  charities.  This  is  the  pivot  of 
the  future.  This  is  at  once  the  corner-stone  and 
the  key-stone  of  .the  structure  of  our  government,  the 
palladium  of  our  hopes,  the  crown  of  our  aspirations." 


18  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

Adult  humanity  should  have  but  one  law  to  gov- 
ern it ;  then  no  one  would  be  despoiled  of  any  rights, 
but  all  would  be  equal  before  the  law.  "  Are  men 
in  this  stronghold  of  freedom  less  patriotic  and  noble 
than  the  emperor  of  Russia  has  shown  himself  to  be 
in  our  day,  when  he  by  proclamation,  fulfilling  the 
aspirations  of  his  predecessors,  set  free  twenty-three 
millions  of  serfs,  and  then  completed  his  work  by 
investing  the  freedmen  with  civil  and  political  rights, 
including  the  right  to  testify  in  courts,  the  right  of 
suffrage,  and  the  right  to  hold  office,  thus  giving 
them  untrammelled  sovereignty  over  their  own  per- 
sons?" 

Would  it  not  be  an  auspicious  moment,  during 
this  centennial  year,  to  deal  as  honorably  by  nearly 
the  same  number  of  political  serfs,  that  dwell  in  the 
land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the  brave  ?  Put 
this  boasted  bravery  into  practice,  by  proclaiming  a 
new  freedom,  and  carry  it  out  by  word  and  letter. 

In  conclusion,  I  ask  that  the  widow  may  be  pro- 
tected in  all  her  rights,  as  a  member  of  the  marriage- 
firm,  as  mother  and  guardian  of  her  own  children, 
and  as  an  honest  person  until  she  proves  herself 
otherwise,  at  which  time  legal  interference  can  over- 
take her,  and  have,  redress,  the  same  as  in  the  case 
of  a  widower ;  and  that  she  be  in  no  way  molested 
or  interfered  with  by  the  Probate  Court. 

What  member  of  this  House  would  like  to  be  de- 
prived, at  the  death  of  his  wife,  of  ,the  management 
of  his  property  for  months  and  years  ?  How  could 


PROTECT 1C*    OF    WIDOWS  AND   ORPHANS.          19 

he  sit  silent  while  witnessing  daily  the  depletion  of 
his  accumulated  wealth,  that  which  had  been  gath- 
ered through  years  of  toil  and  privation  ?  How 
could  he  be  patient  while  his  children  were  being 
beggared  and  himself  unhoused  by  the  unrelenting 
justness  of  the  laws  ?  O  man !  all-powerful  man  I 
you  must  put  yourself  in  a  widow's  place  ere  you 
can  judge  righteously.  You  will  have  to  be  plun- 
dered, robbed,  and  sent  forth  naked,  ere  you  can  feel 
the  sting  of  the  Probate  Court  in  your  flesh,  its  hot 
iron  in  your  heart,  its  scorpion  barb  in  your  soul. 

The  law  should  be  so  amended  that  there  couli 
be  no  possibility  for  the  surviving  partner  to  be  held 
in  mortmain  a  day  or  an  hour  ;  that  the  homestead 
or  home  should  be  held  sacred  and  inviolable  for  the 
sole  benefit  of  the  surviving  partner,  and  the  children 
during  their  minority  ;  that  the  property  of  the  chil- 
dren should  remain  undistributed  until  the  youngest 
had  arrived  at  majority,  when  distribution  should 
take  place  with  a  full  recognition  of  the  claims  of 
each  —  share  and  share  alike.  If  it  is  right  to  divide 
the  property  for  the  benefit  of  the  children  at  the 
father's  death,  then  it  is  equally  important  to  make 
a  division  after  the  death  of  the  mother.  Half- 
orphans  are  more  likely  to  suffer  wrong  at  the  hands 
of  stepmothers  than  stepfathers.  They  are  oftener 
turned  out  of  doors  penniless  by  fathers  than  by 
mothers.  Protect  the  home  and  fireside  from  sacrile- 
gious invasion,  and  protect  the  rights  of  the  chil- 
dren. 


2^  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

Oh  for  an  arrow,  barbed  with  conviction,  to  pierce 
the  hearts  of  my  auditors !  when  feeling  its  smart, 
its  power,  its  justness,  they  might,  yea,  they  would, 
banish  from  this  land  this  curse  to  widows,  this  relic 
of  baibarism,  this  Probate  Court. 

How  shall  I  rouse,  how  startle  you,  into  a  compre- 
hension of  the  unjustness  of  the  Probate  Court  in 
its  unqualified,  untempered  power  over  widows  and 
orphans  ?  I  entreat  you  to  abolish  it  at  once  and 
forever,  as  far  as  community  estate  is  concerned.  It 
is  a  hideous  excrescence  upon  the  face  of  our  boasted 
civilization,  —  an  agonizing  cancer  in  the  heart  of 
affliction.  Banish  it  from  our  midst.  It  has  out- 
lived its  usefulness.  Its  breath  is  putrid,  its  body 
leprous.  Put  it  away  !  It  contaminates  the  touch. 
The  dust  of  the  ages  is  upon  it.  Thus  I  make  my 
last  plea,  my  last  prayer,  before  the  highest  tribunal 
in  the  State,  beseeching  it  to  remove  this  crying  evil. 
I  appeal  to  its  members  —  to  their  patriotism,  man- 
hood, gallantry,  honor,  love,  and  compassion  —  to 
annihilate  at  one  fell  blow  this  indefensible  and  cruel 
law,  which  calls  for  prompt  redress.  Show  your- 
selves men  in  noble  deeds,  and  gods  in  lofty,  thought. 
Amen  and  amen ! 


<    CHAPTER   II. 

A  PROTEST. 
De  profundis. 

I  COME  before  this  people  and  this  nation  with  a 
protest  that  will  tingle  the  cheek  with  shame  twenty- 
five  years  hence,  if  not  now,  to  think  .that  in  the  last 
quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  should  have 
been  a  possibility  of  such  a  need,  —  a  protest  against 
the  untempered  cruelty  to  widows  and  orphans,  in 
our  courts  of  justice.  Courts  of  justice!  rather  let 
me  say  courts  of  injustice  and  confiscation  ! 

The  Probate  Court  fattens  upon  the  widow's  mite 
and  the  orphan's  substance.  If  a  man  is  spared  the 
slow  torture  and  depletion  of  grinding  through  this 
court,  then  a  woman  should  be  spared  also.  Why 
this  invidious  distinction?  The  Probate  Court 
arrays  itself  in  warlike  attitude  toward  all  widows 
and  orphans.  It  was  declared  by  Mr.  Marcy,  the 
Secretary  of  War  during  the  Mexican  campaign, 
that  an  invading  army  had  the  unquestionable  right 
to  draw  its  supplies  from  the  enemy  without  paying 
for  them,  and  to  require  contributions  for  its  support, 
and  to  make  the  enemy  feel  the  weight  of  the  war. 


inrrvBRsiTr; 

VAt^     osr 


22  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

Every  widow  is  made  to  feel  the  weight  of  this  pro- 
bate war,  as  it  drags  its  interminable  and  consuming 
weight  along;  and  to  feel,  too,  that  the  arsenal  md 
magazines  are  all  on  the  side  of  the  invader. 
*  What  can  she  do  ?  She  is  but  chaff,  caught  in  an 
ill  wind,  before  its  power.  Yet  she  should  protest 
and  rebel,  and  urge  every  other  widow  to  protest  and 
rebel,  until  the  warfare  became  general,  and  known 
as  the  War  of  the  Weeds,  in  contradistinction  to  the 
War  of  the  Roses, — a  mixed  and  unjust  warfare, 
strong  and  officially  public  on  one  side,  weak  and 
individually  private  on  the  other.  On  the  side  of 
the  Probate  Court  it  is  under  the  authority  of  the 
laws  of  government,  and  is  therefore  public  ;  but  on 
the  other  side  it  is  without  the  sanction  of  any  rec- 
ognized law  made  by  God  or  man,  and  is  therefore 
private. 

Many  of  the  most  intelligent  women,  aided  and 
abetted  by  many  of  the  most  intelligent  men,  are  in 
active  rebellion  against  the  established  governments 
of  the  civilized  world,  which  are  so  oppressive  to  the 
best  interests  and  condition  of  women,  the  legally 
disabled  half  of  the  great  family  of  Adam.  Rebel- 
lion is  defined  as  the  crime  of  treason,  which  is 
usually  called  the  greatest  crime  known  to  the  law, 
containing  all  other  crimes  as  the  greater  contains 
the  less.  But  neither  the  magnitude  of  the  crime, 
nor  the  detestation  which  it  inspires  in  some  unre- 
generate  minds,  shall  hinder  our  pressing  forward  to 
the  final  victory  which  is  inevitable.  "The  finger 


A  PROTEST.  23 

of  prophecy  points  to  this  movement  as  the  most 
magnificent  reform  that  has  ever  been  launched  upon 
the  world  ; "  and  no  bugle  shall  sing  truce  till  the 
beacon  lights  of  victory,  nobly  won,  are  kindled  on 
every  mountain-top,  from  ocean  to  ocean,  and  from 
sea  to  sea. 

The  just  law  makes  it  a  crime  for  a  husband  to 
die  insolvent  while  broken  up  housekeeping,  partic- 
ularly if  he  owns  no  real  estate ;  for  then  the  widow 
is  stripped  bare,  and  stranded  indeed  upon  the  bitter 
and  inhospitable  shoals  of  ancient  and  modern  law. 
Without  real  estate,  she  is  robbed  of  her  five  thou- 
sand dollars  in  a  homestead,  and  no  money,  stocks, 
dry  goods,  or  any  thing  else,  is  given  her  as  an  equiva- 
lent. She  is  mulcted  of  the  value  of  her  household 
furniture,  simply  because  she  had  none,  and  of  the 
month's  supply  of  provisions  for  the  family  and  for 
the  out-of-door  animals,  if  she  had  possessed  the 
latter.  The  law  allows  her  a  span  of  horses,  a  cow, 
pigs,  and  poultry,  but  she  has  none  of  these  ;  and 
it  pursues  its  unswerving  course,  and  the  reputed 
rich  man's  widow  finds  herself  a  pauper  whom  no- 
body owns.  Such  a  heinous  law  pivots  upon  injus- 
tice and  refined  barbarism,  and  not  upon  any  princi- 
ple of  honor  or  humanity. 

A  man  who  happens  to  have  a  home  and  landed 
property  leates  his  wife  at  his  death,  when  the 
estate  is  insolvent,  in  possession  of  something  tangi- 
ble to  heep  the  wolf  from  the  door.  A  homestead 
/alued  at  five  thousand  dollars  is  set  aside  for  the 


24  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

benefit  of  the  family,  and  at  least  nims  hundred 
dollars'  worth  of  furniture  if  he  was  keeping  house, 
and  a  month's  supply  of  provisions  for  in  doors  and 
out,  also  the  horses  and  carriage  if  he  owned  any,  — 
which  may  be  very  valuable, —  a  cow,  and  other  live 
stock ;  and  the  widow  finds  herself  comparatively 
comfortable.  But  not  so  with  her  less  fortunate 
sister,  whose  husband  has  been  overtaken  by  the 
grim  messenger  in  the  gilded  saloons  of  a  palace 
hotel.  He  owned  no  real  estate.  He  was  a  mer- 
chant, lawyer,  stock-broker,  or  sporting-man,  and  had 
no  foot  of  land  to  call  his  own,  outside  of  Lone 
Mountain,  and  perhaps  not  there.  He  left  his 
widow  no  homestead,  no  furniture,  no  live  stock,  no 
month's  supply  of  provisions  for  herself  and  babes, 
and  none  for  the  horses  and  cow  which  she  has  not 
got,  and  never  had  perhaps ;  but  then,  she  would  like 
to  have  their  value  in  money.  But  no  !  The  wise 
Legislature  cuts  her  off  without  so  much  as  the  pro- 
verbial shilling. 

What  a  sublime  law  !  —  that  gives  to  one  widow 
the  value  of  several  thousand  dollars,  solely  because 
it  happens  to  be  in  special  property,  instead  of 
money  in  the  bank,  stocks  in  the  hands  of  specula- 
tors, dry  goods  in  the  Custom  House,  or  drugs  in  the 
apothecary's  shop ;  and  says  to  another  widow,  "  Go, 
woman,  and  starve  in  peace.  Why  ve£  our  sensitive 
ears  with  your  complaints  ?  "  Such  a  grief-stricken 
and  law-stricken  mourner  cannot  resort  to  the  widow's 
last  ditch,  —  a  boarding-house  or  a  lodging-house,  — 


A  PROTEST.  25 

for  where  can  she  get  the  money  to  buy  furniture  ? 
She  cannot  take  in  plain  sewing;  for  a  sewing- 
machine  costs  money.  She  might  be  qualified  to 
teach  in  the  public  school  department ;  but  then, 
again,  she  would  have  to  purchase  her  position,  most 
likely,  — judging  from  the  history  of  the  past  in  San 
Francisco,  —  and  that  would  also  take  money.  And 
so  with  every  thing  else;  it  takes  money  to  win  a 
position,  however  humble.  The  probate  judge  gets 
out  of  his  disagreeable  position  by  saying  to  such 
widows,  "  I'm  not  to  blame  ;  I  don't  make  the  laws: 
I  only  enforce  them.  You  must  go  to  the  Legisla- 
ture for  redress."  As  well  might  he  advise  them  to 
make  a  journey  to  the  moon,  or  the  antipodes,  for 
redress.  The  Legislature  is  an  august  and  arrogant 
body,  that  has  small  sympathy  with  widows'  tears 
and  orphans'  moans,  else  it  never  would  have  framed 
such  savage  laws  to  govern  them.  "  Hasty,  reckless, 
ignorant  legislation  is  the  true  cause  of  much  of  the 
evil.  The  blame  is  traceable  to  men  who  seek  to 
handle  subjects  which  they  do  not  understand,  and 
who  are  called  legislators."  Not  until  women  are 
absolute,  and  make  laws  to  govern  men,  will  they 
(men)  fully  comprehend  the  inconsistent  and  anoma- 
lous situation. 

It  is  said,  "  A  person  attainted  of  treason  forfeits 
all  his  personal  estate,  of  every  name  and  nature  " 
(the  same  as  a  widow  does  with  an  insolvent  estate, 
without  landed  property),  "no  matter  what  its 
amount,  even  if  he  does  not  forfeit  his  real  estate." 


26  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

A  community  estate  in  fee-simple  belongs  absolutely 
to  the  man-owner,  and  is  in  all  respects  subject  to 
his  disposition,  unless  it  has  been  declared  a  home- 
stead. There  would  seem  to  be  no  reason  for  its 
exemption  from  seizure  by  creditors,  which  is  not 
equally  applicable  to  personal  property.  The  claims 
of  the  family  are  as  strong  in  the  one  case  as  in  the 
other.  Besides,  personal  estate,  in  the  present  days 
of  commerce,  is  usually  much  larger  than  the  real 
estate. 

Thus  a  widow  is  treated  precisely  the  same  way 
that  a  traitor  or  felon  is,  who  is  convicted  of  the 
highest  crimes  upon  the  calendar  excepting  murder. 
She  forfeits  all,  if  her  husband  leaves  an  insolvent 
estate  at  his  death,  —  if  there  be  none  of  the  sp> 
conditions  which  the  law  provides  for.  All  her  sub- 
stance is  confiscated  to  pay  honest  debts.  In  the 
name  of  highest  heaven,  has  she  no  individual  claim 
against  the  estate,  to  be  admitted  ?  Is  it  just  or 
honorable  that  she  should  be  debarred  from  putting 
in  a  claim  against  the  estate,  for  services  well  and 
efficiently  rendered  as  wife,  domestic,  nurse,  and 
housekeeper  ? 

Again,  "  a  traitor  forfeits  all  personal  estate,  and 
a  felon  all  personal  and  real  estate."  This  works  a 
great  hardship  to  the  wives  of  this  class  of  criminals. 
They  —  the  wives  —  are  punished  almost  as  severely 
as  the  real  offenders,  by  being  stripped  of  all  their 
possessions.  Why  not  leave  at  least  half  of  all  the 
substance  to  the  innocent  family  ?  It  surely  beh> 
to  it. 


A  PROTEST.  27 

If  the  wife  becomes  a  traitor  or  a  felon,  the  hus- 
band is  not  thus  scourged  for  her  crimes.  She  alone 
is  punished ;  he  is  left  in  full  possession  of  all  the 
property,  community  or  otherwise.  Sex  is  thus 
branded  with  the  stigma  of  infamy;  the  crimes  of 
the  husband  and  father  are  stamped  upon  the  brows 
of  his  wards  —  the  wife  and  children  —  by  the  open 
and  shameless  confiscation  of  all  their  goods.  Can 
such  an  act  be  termed  just  ?  No  !  It  savors  of  bar- 
barism and  the  dark  ages,  and  not  of  enlightenment 
and  Christianity.  In  this  case  the  scales  of  justice 
are  apparently  in  the  hands  of  the  harlequin  with 
cap  and  bells,  instead  of  the  blind  goddess  whose 
delicate  touch  is  capable  of  so  fine  an  adjustment 
that  not  a  hair's  weight  can  escape  her  notice.  Ah  ! 
how  long  must  she  wait  ere  she  will  be  permitted  to 
assume  her  place,  and  mete  out  justice  to  women  ? 

Equality  must  commence  at  the  hearthstone.  I 
sluill  ever  maintain,  in  spite  of  all  august  laws,  that 
the  two  adult  heads  of  the  household  are  equal  in 
position,  and,  as  such,  should  thus  be  held  in  law,  — 
turn  and  turn  about.  Intrinsic  justice  demands  it. 


CHAPTER  III. 

CONFISCATION. 

Caput  mortuum. 

IT  is  maintained,  that  confiscation  is  no  more 
unjust  toward  the  property  of  offenders  than  fine, 
from  which,  of  course,  it  only  differs  in  degree. 
Thus  a  fine  could  be  laid  upon  the  family  of  a  felon, 
that  would  take  away  every  thing  but  their  persons  ; 
the  same  as  the  probate  law  does  in  the  case  of  the 
special  class  of  widows  under  discussion. 

Again:  "  Every  adult  citizen,  in  a  community  hav- 
ing the  form  and  character  of  sovereignty,  has  a  right 
to  individual  life ;  and  in  defence  of  such  life  they 
should  be  allowed  to  put  forth  all  their  energies.  In 
vain  you  accord  to  them  the  rigH  of  sovereignty,  if 
you  deprive  them  of  other  rights  without  which  sove- 
reignty is  only  a  name.  '  I  think,  therefore  I  am,'  was 
the  sententious  utterance  by  which  the  first  of  modern 
philosophers  demonstrated  personal  existence.  *  I 
am,  therefore  I  have  rights,'  may  be  the  declaration 
of  every  individual  when  his  or  her  legal  existence  is 
assailed.  The  disparity  between  the  laws  which  are 
made  to  govern  men  and  women  is  as  marked  in  its 

28 


CONFISCATION.  29 

character  as  that  between  a  judge  and  a  general, 
between  the  blade  of  the  guillotine  and  the  sword  of 
the  soldier,  between  the  open  palm  and  the  clinched 
fist.  They  are  different  in  origin,  different  in  extent, 
and  different  in  object.  They  are  made  by  rulers  for 
the  benefit  of  rulers,  and  to  coerce  a  subject  class." 

A  prominent  statesmen  of  Massachusetts  has 
recently  declared  that  "  the  sovereign  people  of 
America  are  gentlemen"  Never  was  there  a  more 
pertinent  and  truthful  declaration  made  in  the  Old 
Bay  State ;  and  the  truth,  with  its  applied  principles, 
extends  to  the  Golden  State  of  the  Pacific,  without 
one  jot  or  tittle  of  abatement.  These  masculine 
laws  are  amiyed  in  hostile  attitude  against  all 
women,  but  more  particularly  toward  such  as  are 
widowed  without  real  estate,  who  are  living,  at  the 
time  of  the  death  of  their  husbands,  in  rented  houses 
with  rented  furniture,  or  in  hotels. 

The  principle  of  war  is  a  denial  of  the  right  of 
private  property  to  a  belligerent  enemy.  A  widow 
is  not  a  belligerent  enemy,  she  has  broken  no  faith  ; 
and  yet  she  is  denied  all  rights  in  her  property  if  the 
husband  dies  insolvent.  Even  its  careful  manage- 
ment is  refused  her,  should  there  be  an  all-powerful 
creditor  who  objected.  The  executor  is  paid  for 
manipulating  the  estate,  but  even  this  much  is  not 
allowed  her  out  of  her  own  substance.  The  property 
of  such  widows  is  all  seized  by  creditors  as  enemy 
property ;  and  there  is  no  law,  tempered  by  humanity, 
to  stay  the  hand  of  the  spoiler. 


30  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

In  ancient  Rome  property  thus  plundered  from  a 
foe  became  military  prepossessions ;  and  the  title  to 
an  estate  thus  acquired  was  considered  the  best  to 
be  obtained,  and  its  symbol  was  a  spear.  I  would 
most  respectfully  suggest  a  symbolic  death's-head 
and  cross-bones  as  an  appropriate  emblem  for  the 
title  of  widow-prepossessions  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. 

Again :  "  During  the  progress  of  a  rebellion, 
every  rebel's  individual  property  is  liable  to  seizure, 
upon  the  land  or  upon  the  high  seas."  Houseless 
and  landless  widows,  if  the  estate  is  insolvent,  are 
treated  just  as  rigorously  as  rebels  in  arms  are 
treated.  No  tender  compassion  takes  off  the  edge 
from  the  teeth  of  the  law  toward  them.  It  exacts 
its  just  pound,  and  has  a  keen  knife  to  execute  the 
demand.  The  warfare  waged  against  widows  adopts 
the  old  Napoleonic  code,  that  war  should  support 
itself.  Thus  the  grand  headquarters,  the  Probate 
Court,  is  supported  by  the  confiscated* substance  of 
the  widow  and  the  fatherless,  the  bereaved  slaves 
that  pine  under  these  cruel  and  oppressive  laws. 

But  this  ignoble  bondage  to  barbarous  customs 
and  inhuman  laws  ought  to  engender  active  ivU-llion 
in  the  breast  of  every  wife  and  mother;  for  she 
knoweth  not  what  a  day  may  bring  forth,  nor  how 
soon  she  will  be  caught  in  the  unrelenting  jaws  of 
the  Probate  Coir.'t. 

The  man,  the  law,  and  its  active  engine  the  court, 
are  the  legal  masters  of  all  women  ;  and  the  woman 


CONFISCATION.  31 

is  the  slave.  This  is  not  the  best  condition  of  things 
for  either  party.  The  ancient  Scythians  said  to 
Alexander,  "  Between  the  master  and  the  slave  no 
friendship  exists :  even  in  times  of  peace,  the  rights 
of  war  are  still  preserved." 

What  women  are  demanding  is,  that  these  galling 
chains  may  be  broken  asunder,  that  the  law-shackled 
and  law-oppressed  may  go  free.  Vattel  says,  "  To 
deliver  an  oppressed  people  is  a  noble  fruit  of 
victory :  it  is  a  valuable  advantage  gained,  thus  to 
acquire  a  faithful  friend."  Men  will  find,  in  the 
good  time  coming,  that  they  have  been  fighting 
against  their  best  interests  in  thus  debarring  woman 
from  much  that  makes  life  sweet  to  man.  All  that 
is  asked  is,  that  women  may  be  governed  by  the 
same  laws  which  govern  men.  Is  this  an  unreason- 
able request  ? 

It  matters  not  how  rich  a  creditor  may  be :  the 
law  permits  and  requires  the  Probate  Court  to  con- 
fiscate all  the  substance  of  the  widow,  for  his  benefit, 
if  the  estate  is  insolvent.  She  can  retain  nothing 
of  value.  Even  her  presents,  made  many  months 
prior  to  the  death  of  her  husband,  if  they  chance  to 
be  valuable,  are  taken  from  her  to  satisfy  the  greed 
of  the  creditor.  He  is  permitted  to  exercise  his  bel- 
ligerent rights  to  the  fullest  extent.  Nothing  is 
sacred  in  probate  law.  It  is  impossible  for  her  to 
claim  the  immunity  usually  conceded  to  the  land  of 
an  enemy  within  our  territorial  jurisdiction.  For  the 
widow'in  her  grief  there  can  be  no  just  exemption ; 


32  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

under  certain  conditions,  all  her  property  is  confis- 
cated. 

The  Probate  Court  constitutes  itself  a  PRIZE  TRI- 
BUNAL, and  enjoys  a  fixed  place  in  the  judicial 
tern  of  the  United  States.  It  seizes  upon  the  persons 
and  estates  of  the  widow  and  orphans,  the  moment 
the  husband  and  father  has  the  ashes  of  earth  strewn 
over  his  inanimate  form.  The  hearing  is  by  the 
court  alone,  without  a  jury,  excepting  in  one  single 
case,  —  the  contesting  of  a  will,  substantially  accord- 
ing to  the  forms  derived  from  the  old  Roman  code ; 
and  the  judgment  is  against  the  property  captim-d, 
pronouncing  its  condemnation  and  distribution  for 
the  sole  benefit  of  creditors.  In  this  hostile  and 
inhuman  seizure  it  little  recks  what  becomes  of  the 
despoiled  sufferers,  —  the  widows  and  orphans.  To 
deprive  this  legally  oppressed  class  of  all  resources, 
ought  to  be  alike  repugnant  to  reason,  equity,  and 
humanity. 

Confiscation,  it  is  true,  is  as  old  as  history  itself. 
But  in  early  times  it  was  exercised  toward  enemies 
only.  The  innocent  were  not  scourged.  King 
David  confiscated  the  goods  of  Absalom's  confeder- 
ates. Widows  with  insolvent  estates  are  not  recog- 
nized confederates;  but,  under  certain  conditions, 
they  do  not  escape  the  punishment  nevertheless. 

Caesar  caused  the  confiscation  of  all  the  property 
of  the  Catalinian  conspirators,  for  the  enrichment  of 
the  public  treasury.  Widows  whose  estates  are 
insolvent  are  not  conspirators  ;  and  yet  their  sub- 


CONFISCATION.  33 

stance  goes  to  enrich  the  Probate  Court  treasury, 
and  the  real  or  imaginary  claims  of  creditors. 

Justinian,  in  his  immortal  revision  of  the  law, 
abolished  confiscation  excepting  in  the  cases  of  high 
treason.  Widows  with  insolvent  estates,  and  no 
land,  and  no  homes,  and  no  furniture,  and  no 
month's  provisions,  are  not  all  traitors ;  and  yet  all 
their  substance  is  confiscated.  In  the  worst  days  of 
the  Roman  Republic,  when  confiscation  was  at  its 
height,  there  were  some  humane  rulers,  like  Antoninus 
Pius,  under  whom  all  the  goods  of  a  convict  were 
left  to  his  family.  Nineteenth-century  lawgivers 
had  better  take  a  lesson  in  and  follow  out  these 
humane  principles,  which  they  now,  in  certain  cases, 
wholly  ignore. 

Throughout  Roman  history,  confiscation  was  in- 
separable from  war.  Houseless  widows  with  insolv- 
ent estates  are  not  warriors,  and  they  are  not  all 
imbued  with  a  military  spirit.  Why,  then,  treat 
them  as  such  ? 

Confiscation  was  a  devastating  engine  of  ven- 
geance and  robbery  during  the  feudal  system,  which 
spared  neither  genius  nor  numbers.  The  Protest- 
ants, during  the  theological  conflict  in  Germany, 
were  stripped  of  their  possessions  to  punish  them  for 
heresy.  Widows  with  insolvent  estates  are  not  ne- 
cessarily heretics,  and  yet  they  share  the  same  fate. 
Spain  exercised  like  intolerance  towards  the  Moors 
and  Jews.  They  were  robbed  of  all  their  possessions. 
and  sent  forth  naked  wanderers,  without  the  where- 


34  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

withal  to  be  clothed,  housed,  or  fed  —  a  la  nineteenth- 
century  widows. 

Confiscation,  by  the  laws  of  Great  Britain,  was  the 
inseparable  incident  of  treason.  It  was  a  punish- 
ment to  rebels,  the  same  as  their  blood  was  cor- 
rupted, or  as  the  estates  of  the  victims  of  the  scaffold 
were  confiscated  for  the  enrichment  of  the  govern- 
ment. Henry  VIII.,  after  abdicating  his  religion 
and  repudiating  his  queen,  filled  his  coffers  with  the 
confiscated  treasure  of  the  monasteries. 

During  the  Revolution,  the  property  of  tories,  loy- 
alists, and  refugees,  was  confiscated  for  the  benefit  of 
the  rebels  in  arms.  In  thus  tracing  the  law  of  con- 
fiscation, 'from  early  times  down  to  the  present 
epoch,  we  do  not  find  a  single  precedent  that  will 
equal  in  cruelty  this  probate  confiscation  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

Our  forefathers  rebelled  against  oppression  a  cen- 
tury ago;  and  why  should  not  their  brave  spirit 
infuse  itself  into  the  vital  being  of  their  daughters 
to-day,  who  are  yet  under  the  ban,  in  spite  of  the 
blood-bought  victory  ? 

As  the  centennial  birthday  of  one-half  of  their 
children  draws  nigh,  I  recognize  the  old  spirit  of 
rebellion,  which  animated  them  to  do  and  die  on 
many  a  well-won  field,  rousing  within  me ;  and  I 
can  hear  the  steady  tramp  of  thousands  who  share 
the  same  feelings.  We  are  coming,  Mother  Free- 
dom, ten  hundred  thousand  strong  !  There  will  be 
no  pausing,  no  turning  back ;  for  there  are  no  insur- 


CONFISCATION. 


35 


mountable  difficulties  to  such  as  are  determined  to 
The  will  to  do  and  dare  is  a  mighty  argument 


win. 


of  success  in  all  undertakings.  Freedom  is  never 
secured  as  a  gift,  but  only  as  a  reward,  bravely 
earned  by  one's  own  exertions,  one's  own  sacrifices, 
and  one's  own  toil. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

MARY  JONES'S  PROBATE  EXPERIENCE. 
Instar  Omnium. 

To  better  illustrate  this  useless,  expensive,  and 
time-wasting  operation,  I  will  state,  —  with  some 
digressions,  —  in  as  brief  a  manner  as  possible,  tin; 
tedious  process  of  probating  one  woman,  who  owed 
but  two  debts,  all  told,  besides  the  expenses  of  the 
last  sickness  and  burial.  I  think,  when  I  have 
finished  the  recital,  that  you  will  agree  with  me,  that 
the  mills  of  the  probate-law  gods  grind  exceedingly 
fine  and  exceedingly  slow.  I  have  taken  the  record 
from  Belknap's  "  Probate  Law." 

Thomas  Jones  died  intestate,  in  the  city  and 
county  of  San  Francisco,  leaving  an  estate  of  com- 
munity property -valued  at  $14,137  ;  and  Mary  Jones 
his  widow,  being  of  lawful  age  and  sound  and  dispos- 
ing mind  and  body,  prayed  to  the  probate  judge  to 
be  allowed  to  manage  and  control  the  property 
belonging  to  herself  and  her  three  minor  children. 
This  prayer  was  most  graciously  granted,  because 
there  were  no  objections  made,  after  having  passed 
through  the  usual  forms  and  delays  of  advertising. 

*"  36 


MARY  JONES'S  PROBATE  EXPERIENCE.  37 

posting,  binding,  and  swearing,  which  consumed 
several  weeks. 

Twenty  clays  after  her  letters  of  administration 
were  granted,  she  had  a  statement  of  affairs  ready 
for  publishing.  This  should  have  been  prima  facie 
evidence  for  the  judge,  that  he  had  not  misplaced 
his  confidence.  Still  he  rested  secure,  for  he  had 
compelled  her  to  give  bonds  to  the  State  of  California, 
for  the  sum  of  810,700,  that  she  would  not  cheat  the 
widow  and  orphans  of  the  late  Thomas  Jones,  de- 
ceased ;  and,  as  though  that  were  not  absurd  and  cruel 
enough,  she  was  obliged  to  have  John  Smith  and 
James  Brown  bound  with  her.  A  trinity  of  unusual 
and  remarkable  names,  —  Jones,  Smith,  and  Brown ! 
What  a  dreadful  bond!  almost  as  bad  as  Shy  lock's, 
and  quite  as  cruel.  A  widow's  substance  is  the  life- 
blood  of  herself  and  babes. 

In  the  second  form  of  this  lightning  process,  the 
appraisers  come  in  due  order,  with  great  flourish  of 
trumpets,  having  been  cried  through  the  press,  and 
posted  in  three  prominent  places,  for  ten  days. 
What  an  heroic  and  ennobling  act,  that  compels  a 
widow,  in  her  should-be  sacred  grief,  to  submit  to 
the  outrage  of  having  three  strange  men  rummaging 
through  the  house,  pasting  tickets  of  valuation  upon 
every  thing  from  a  skillet  to  a  piano,  from  a  gridiron 
to  a  sofa !  poking  their  inquisitive  noses  into  closets 
and  bedrooms,  leering  into  cabinets  and  mirrors,  if 
they  could  but  catch  a  momentary  glance  of  their 
asinine  faces — for,  if  any  thing  would  impart  an 


88  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

ancestral  expression  to  a  man's  face,  it  would  be  just 
such  unholy  sacrilege  as  this  within  a  house  of 
mourning. 

Every  thing  that  has  garnished  and  beautified  the 
home,  and  much  that  the  wife  has  scrimped  and 
saved  to  obtain,  is  coolly  appraised  ;  and,  should  she 
chance  to  be  absent,  unclean  hands  are  laid  upon  her 
private  personal  property,  and  every  thing  of  value 
which  was  her  husband's  personal  property  is  scraped 
into  the  vortex  of  ruin  and  wreck.  In  the  name  of 
all  humanity,  —  I  cannot  smirch  the  name  of  Chris- 
tianity in  this  unholy,  unsavory  connection,  —  is  not 
the  house  desolate  enough  without  having  pictures 
stripped  from  the  walls,  bureau-drawers  ransacked, 
and  the  home,  which  should  be  sacred  to  grief,  over- 
run with  executors,  appraisers,  sheriffs,  clerks,  an <1 
reporters  ? 

Can  this  be  a  Christian  land,  and  such  legalized 
robbery,  disgraceful  to  our  civilization,  be  permitted 
to  be  ?  vWhy  not  make  one  huge  funereal  pyre,  and 
vivicremate  the  wife  and  babes  along  with  the 
father  and  husband  ?  It  is  but  a  step  removed  from 
the  present  shameless  barbarism  of  the  Probate 
Court ;  and  I  repeat  and  reiterate  the  statement  that 
it  is  a  confiscation  court,  created  by  men  lawgivers 
to  rob  widows  and  orphans  ;  a  court  which  cries, 
"  Peace,  peace,  and  be  ye  clothed  and  fed !  "  should 
the  case  be  a  contested  one ;  for  then  it  must  hear 
the  objections  on  the  other  side,  ere  it  will  issue  an 
order  for  the  payment  of  a  family  allowance  which  it 
has  previously  granted. 


MARY  JONES'S  PROBATE  EXPERIENCE.  39 

A  court  of  justice!  It  is  a  court  of  ^justice  and 
confiscation,  and  a  disgrace  to  the  age  in  which  we 
live.  I  know  whereof  I  speak.  I  am  a  widow,  and 
am  passing  through  this  probate  crucible  for  the  re- 
finement and  subjugation  of  relicts.  I  have  no  more 
knowledge  or  voice  in  the  management  of  my  estate 
than  the  governor  of  this  State  has.  Hundreds  of 
shares  (if  Mr.  Stow's  word  was  of  any  value)  of 
valuable  stocks  have  disappeared  altogether;  and 
promissory  notes  due  the  estate  from  sleek-looking 
men,  whose  dress  and  bearing  would  suggest  their 
ability  to  pay  their  honest  debts,  are  put  down  in  the 
inventory  at  "no  value" 

Why  are  not  widowers  probated  ?  Surely,  what 
is  such  sublime  sauce  for  the  goose  ought  to  be  fine 
garnish  for  the  gander.  Why  these  one-sided  laws, 
which  refuse  their  vulture  protection  to  men  ?  Would 
that  they  might  be  protected  for  one  little  year,  and 
be  obliged  to  plead  daily,  sick  or  well,  as  I  have 
done,  for  the  small  pittance  —  the  allowance  money  — 
taken  out  of  their  hard  earnings,  and  be  refused 
even  that !  I  think  this  charming  probate  business 
would  sink  down  low,  lower,  lowest,  into  the  seeth- 
ing, boiling  caldron  beneath  this  crust  of  earth 
where  it  belongs,  never  to  rear  its  hydra  head 
again. 

But  to  return  to  Mary  Jones's  probate  experience. 
After  the  furniture  had  been  appraised,  it  was  set 
aside  to  her.  Why  this  needless  expense  of  thirty 
dollars,  and  the  annoyance  ?  Her  next  prayer  was 


40  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

for  an  allowance  in  money  to  keep  the  souls  and 
bodies  of  the  heirs  of  the  late  Thomas  Jones  to- 
gether; or,  in  other  words,  to  prevent  the  family 
from  starving  during  the  administration.  And  then 
again  she  prayed  that  the  roof  that  sheltered  her, 
and  under  which  her  babes  were  born  and  her  hus- 
band had  died,  might  be  set  aside  for  a  homestead  ; 
that,  together  with  the  four  walls  that  supported  it, 
and  the  ground  upon  which  they  stood.  Now,  this 
same  lot  with  the  house  thereupon  had  been  legally 
declared  a  homestead  many  years  prior  to  the  death 
of  the  said  Thomas  Jones;  therefore  this  second 
declaration  would  appear  to  the  veriest  dullard  a 
superfluity  at  least,  if  nothing  stronger.  Both  prayers 
were  granted,  after  rehearsing  for  the  fiftieth  time 
the  fact  that  Mary  Jones  was  the  duly  appointed 
administratrix  of  the  estate  of  Thomas  Jones,  de- 
ceased (as  though  a  living  man's  wife  could  be 
administratrix  of  any  man's  or  woman's  estate 
during  wifehood),  and  that  Mary  Jones  was  his  law- 
ful wedded  wife,  and  therefore  his  lawful  widow, 
and  the  lawful  mother  of  the  aforementioned  lawful 
minor  Joneses. 

In  the  seventh  prayer  is  found  the  petition  of  the 
executrix  to  the  probate  judge,  praying  "  His  Honor" 
to  accept  her  annual  account,  with  all  the  vouchers, 
&c.  And  also  she  further  prayed  that  the  Court 
might  appoint  some  person  to  represent  the  minor 
heirs  of  the  late  Thomas  Jones,  who  had  no  legally 
appointed  guardian.  No  legally  appointed  guardian  ! 


MART  JONES'S  PROBATE  EXPERIENCE.  41 

Did  not  the  forming  hand  of  the  Almighty  appoint 
Mary  Jones  their  legal  guardian,  before  a  higher 
tribunal  than  man  has  dared  to  create  for  the  shac- 
kling of  one-half  of  God's  great  human  family  ?  0 
motherhood!  where  is  thy  crown  of  glory  ? 

Prayer  number  eight.  Order  had  come  out  of 
chaos.  Mary  had  every  thing  brought  to  a  head, 
and  ready  to  be  closed  up.  Therefore  the  executrix 
of  the  late  Thomas  Jones,  deceased,  prayed  and 
petitioned  that  the  judge  would  permit  her  to  close 
the  affairs  of  the  estate  of  said  deceased,  and  retire 
from  the  heat,  turmoil,  and  strife  of  public  life,  to 
the  more  congenial  atmosphere  of  private  life.  After 
the  incidents  to  the  delay  of  six  forms,  it  was  "  or- 
dered, adjudged,  and  decreed,  that  the  said  Mary 
Jones,  administratrix  as  aforesaid,  having  brought 
the  said  administration  to  a  close,  her  letters  of  ad- 
ministration be  vacated." 

Although  honorably  discharged  from  her  position 
of  trust,  Mary  Jones  was  still  a  beggar  at  this  con- 
fiscation court  of  injustice.  And  for  what,  pray,  was 
tlie  ninth  prayer  ?  Freedom,  put  sackcloth  upon 
thy  loins,  and  ashes  upon  thy  head,  and  bow  thy 
face  in  the  dust  while  I  name  it.  A  mother  in  the 
free  Republic  of  the  United  States  of  America  is 
forced  by  law  to  pray  to  a  strange  man  to  be  per- 
mitted to  have  the  guardianship  of  her  own  flesh ; 
for  the  legal  right  to  protect  and  care  for  her  own 
babes,  the  fruit  of  her  womb,  blood  of  her  blood, 
bone  of  her  bone,  flesh  of  her  flesh*  that  which 


42  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

germinated  within  her  body,  and  whose  growth  and 
development,  each  day  and  hour,  a  portion  of  her 
own  life  was  given  to  perfect.  For  this  she  hurl 
passed  through  the  modern  tragedy  of  childbed,  and 
bit  back  the  pain  when  a  man-child  was  born  ;  for 
this  she  had  sat  out  the  stars,  in  sickness,  when  no 
eye  but  God's  was  upon  her;  for  this  she  would 
have  given  her  life  as  a  ransom,  if  need  be  ;  for  this 
she  would  have  toiled  till  the  back  broke  and  the 
sinews  cracked. 

And  tliis  was  the  ninth  prayer  ! 

Only  once  after  this  was  Mary  Jones  brought  to 
her  knees  by  an  earthly  judge  ;  and  that  was  to  be 
allowed  to  sell  some  real  estate  belonging  to  her 
children,  to  pay  for  their  education.  This  was  the 
tenth  and  last-named  petition  in  this  sickening  record 
of  prayers  to  a  mundane  potentate.  The  serf-like 
degradation  of  the  free-born  daughters  of  America 
to-day  is  well  illustrated  in  this  probate  proceeding. 

Ten  times  did  this  woman  pray,  during  the  one 
year,  eight  months,  and  twenty-eight  days  (the  actual 
time  that  it  took  to  settle  the  estate  and  pay  the 
two  debts  owed  by  the  husband)  ;  and  each  time  the 
prayer  was  granted,  because  there  was  nothing  to 
hinder.  It  cost  her  two  thousand  dollars  in  gold,  as 
nearly  as  I  could  estimate ;  it  did  not  give  the  cost 
of  all  the  proceedings.  She  was  sworn  fifteen  times, 
and  boun  I  four  different  times,  with  four  different 
men,  for  the  added  sum  of  $19,200,  which  was 
$5,063  more  than  the  valuation  of  the  entire  estate. 


MARY  JONES'S  PROBATE  EXPERIENCE.  43 

It  passed  through  eighty-five  different  forms,  and 
had  fifty-one  additional  oaths,  to  give  sufficient 
strength  and  due  legal  sublimity  to  the  transactions. 
It  took  six  men  to  appraise  her  property,  to  fix  the 
mete  and  bounds  of  the  valuation  of  all  her  posses- 
sions; one  judge,  fifteen  different  lawyers  and  nota- 
ries, three  clerks  and  deputy  clerks,  and  forty-seven 
other  men,  auctioneers,  witnesses,  referees,  reporters, 
posters,  two  uncles,  and  two  guardians,  besides  two 
newspapers,  and  the  last-named  actual  and  legally 
appointed  guardian,  Mary  Jones.  The  fact  that 
Thomas  Jones  was  dead  was  confirmed  one  hundred 
and  fifty-nine  times,  by  actual  statement ;  enough  to 
convince  the  most  sceptical  that  he  had  handed  in 
his  last  account. 

What  necessity  was  there  for  probating  Mary- 
Jones  ?  She  was  an  honest  woman,  as  all  her  acts 
in  this  nefarious  proceeding  prove,  —  willing  and  anx- 
ious to  pay  all  her  debts.  Not  a  large  all,  —  two 
thousand  dollars  and  the  expenses  of  the  last  sickness 
and  burial,  four  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  being  all 
that  she  owed.  For  this  trivial  sum  of  money, — 
which  would  have  been  paid  in  one  month's  time,  at 
a  cost  of  probably  twenty-five  dollars  for  advertising, 
if  she  had  been  let  alone,  and  not  brought  up  to  face 
the  Probate  Court  melange  of  uncertain  fruition  and 
public  exposure, —  she  lost  two  thousand  dollars 
and  nearly  two  years'  valuable  time,  besides  the 
wear  and  tear  of  gowns  and  good  feelings. 

Talk    of  the   sacred  retirement  and  sanctity  of 


44  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

home  !  Put  such  precepts  into  piactice  with 
widows.  Precept  is  not  worth  a  straw  without  t'le 
practice.  Mary  Jones  was  harassed  and  tormented 
for  twenty  months  and  twenty-eight  days,  pestered 
by  lawyers'  delays,  exasperated  by  probate  clerks 
(who  are  not  over-civil  to  widows),  harried  by  ap- 
praisers, distracted  by  reporters,  set  on  edge  by  the 
condescending  urbanity  of  the  judge,  and  more  or 
less  ruffled  by  the  hundred  and  one  other  men  who 
had  their  fingers  in  her  individual  pie. 

There  is  no  more  call  for  such  a  court  for  women 
than  there  is  for  men.  It  puts,  in  all  its  acts,  the 
brand  of  dishonesty  upon  the  brow  of  every  widow. 
A  widower  is  trusted  with  the  entire  estate  whu-h 
consists  of  community  property.  He  is  not  pro- 
bated. The  law  does  not  lay  violent  hands  upon 
his  substance,  and  the  bodies  of  himself  and  chil- 
dren, as  soon  as  his  wife  ceases  to  breathe.  His 
time  and  money  are  not  filched  from  him  by  any 
court  of  injustice.  He  is  left  in  undisturbed  pos- 
session of  what  years  of  toil  have  brought  to  him 
and  his. 

This  is  a  free  country.  Free  indeed  where  such 
things  are  permitted  to  be  !  Shame  upon  such  free- 
dom !  It  is  a  criminal  proceeding  against  the  inno- 
cent without  cause,  —  a  corroding  ulcer  upon  the 
face  of  our  boasted  civilization ;  and  it  should  be 
branded  with  the  anathemas  of  the  oppressed  and 
downtrodden  throughout  Christendom.  Not  until 
the  criminal  proceedings  of  the  Probate  Court  abom- 


MARY  JONES'S  PROBATE  EXPERIENCE.  45 

inations  are  fully  ventilated,  will  people  rouse  them- 
selves to  the  necessity  of  abolishing  it  as  far  as  it 
relates  to  community  property.  Who  will  claim 
that  the  outrage  perpetrated  upon  Mary  Jones, 
under  the  cover  of  law,  was  not  open  and  shameless 
robbery  of  valuable  time  and  hard-earned  money? 
or  deny  that  it  was  a  criminal  act  which  should  put 
all  men  called  legislators  to  the  blush  ? 

What  would  Thomas  Jones  have  said  to  those 
minions  of  the  law,  called  appraisers  and  guardians, 
if  Mary  Jones  had  just  been  covered  with  the  ashes 
of  earth,  instead  of  himself?  Standing  beneath  his 
roof-tree,  with  a  rifle  charged  to  the  lips,  he  would 
have  exclaimed,  "  Cross  my  threshold  at  your  peril ! 
You  are  trespassers,  and  the  first  one  that  braves  my 
wn  ruing  is  a  dead  man  !  If  I  don't  pay  my  two  debts, 
then  let  loose  your  legal  blood-hounds,  but  not  be- 
fore ! "  And,  if  Thomas  Jones  had  put  his  threat 
into  execution,  it  would  have  been  in  defence  of  his 
paternal  rights  and  his  financial  life,  —  and  no  one 
would  have  blamed  him. 

Under  similar  circumstances,  I  would  carry  out 
my  principles,  and  defend  my  children  and  my  prop- 
erty with  my  life.  If  I  had  been  in  San  Francisco, 
those  executors  would  not  have  found  it  such  a  pleas- 
ant pastime  to  pillage  the  abode  of  the  dead.  They 
would  have  encountered  a  very  serious  obstacle,  and 
their  full-fledged  executive  powers  would  have  been 
called  into  active  exercise  in  executing  a  very  lively 
retreat,  if  they  valued  limb  and  muscle. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  SCIENCE  OP  GOVERNMENT. 
Prcemonitus,  prcemunitus. 

WE  hear  a  great  deal  nowadays  about  the  science 
of  government  being  included  in  our  popular  system 
of  education ;  that  every  boy  should  be  made  famil- 
iar with  the  general  outlines,  at  least,  of  a  govern- 
ment in  which  he  will  have  an  active  voice  at 
majority.  I  say,  "  Yes,  by  all  means,  give  every  boy 
and  girl  a  chance,  especially  the  latter."  I  would 
have  the  girl-baby  nourished  at  the  mother's  breast 
on  probate  pap  ;  at  the  knee,  with  the  nutritious 
sons  that  the  law  could  wrest  her  from  her  motl 
arms,  and  consign  her  to  the  tender  mercy  of  stran- 
gers ;  at  the  dawn  of  womanhood,  that  she  was  to  be 
a  servant  in  her  future  husband's  house,  in  all  save 
salary;  and  that,  at  her  death,  she  could  not  will 
away  a  dollar  of  the  united  earnings  of  herself  and 
husband,  but  that  he  could  convey  it  all  away  from 
her  on  his  death-bed,  leaving  her  entirely  destitute, 
that  is,  if  it  were  not  in  real  estate  ;  that  he  could 
appoint  her  most  implacable  foe  master  of  her  sub- 
stance, and  the  legal  guardian  of  her  children  and 

46 


THE  SCIENCE   OF  GOVERNMENT.  47 

her  unborn  babe,  giving  the  dead  father  more  legal 
power  over  the  unborn  child  than  the  living  mother ; 
and  that  she  could  be  held  in  mortmain  until  that 
child  became  of  age.  These  are  some  of  the  perti- 
nent lessons  in  the  science  of  government  which 
should  be  early  inculcated  in  the  minds  of  "  little 
women."  They  should  be  bred  in  the  bone,  infused 
into  the  blood,  so  that  they  may  remain  long  in  the 
flesh,  of  every  female  child. 

I  know  that  every  loving  and  trusting  wife  thinks, 
"  Oh  !  my  husband  could  never  be  guilty  of  such  an 
outrage  toward  me  as  to  appoint  an  enemy  of  mine 
to  have  power  and  control  over  property  which  we 
—  my  husband  and  I  —  have  earned  together."  I 
thought  so  too ;  and  there  is  not  a  husband  in  the 
United  States  that  could  by  any  possibility  express 
more  love  and  tenderness  towards  his  wife  than  mine 
did  towards  me.  But  you  must  bear  in  mind  that 
wordy  expressions  are  but  the  leaves  and  blossoms : 
beautiful,  fragrant,  and  charming  as  they  make  this 
life,  yet  they  are  not  the  golden  fruition,  the  fruit. 
Only  the  ripe  fruit  of  DEEDS  makes  these  things  se- 
cure and  of  genuine  value  after  the  lips  are  cold 
which  have  uttered  them. 

Your  husband  may  be  stricken  down  without  a 
will  (the  majority  of  men  usually  put  off  the  making 
of  their  wills  and  their  souls'  salvation  till  the  last 
moment),  and  then  the  Probate  Court  at  once  takes 
possession  of  your  estate  and  the  persons  of  yourself 
tuid  children ;  or  some  mercenary  villain  may  catch 


48  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

your  husband's  ear  at  the  last  moment,  when  he  has 
no  power  left  for  any  thing  excepting  to  die,  and  you 
may  be  robbed  of  all  your  possessions  ;  and  the  juxt 
law  protects  this  noble  transaction. 

Less  than  a  week  before  my  husband  died,  he  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  me  —  I  was  in  Europe  —  in  whi«-h 
I  requested  him  to  send  me  two  thousand  dollars,  say- 
ing, "  I  shall  have  used  all  the  face  of  the  letter  of 
credit  by  the  time  the  money  arrives."  He  received 
and  read  my  letter  three  days  before  he  signed  the 
will,  which  was  brought  to  him  ready-made  when  lie 
was  in  a  dying  condition,  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
ting  control  of  the  estate.  At  the  same  time  I  believe 
that  he  conveyed  away  a  large  part  of  our  commu- 
nity property ;  not  for  just  debts,  for  the  law  protects 
all  such  —  except  the  wife's.  He  did  not  (so  they 
say)  pay  for  the  letter  of  credit  which  I  hud  used ; 
and  he  made  110  provision  for  my  longer  stay  abroad, 
nor  for  my  return  home.  And  yet  he  had  said  to 
my  sister,  but  a  few  moments  before  this  inhuman 
transaction,  "Tell  Lizzie  that  my  love  for  her  lias 
known  no  diminution  during  these  years  of  wedlock. 
1  love  her  now  the  same  as  I  did  the  day  that  we 
clasped  hands  at  the  altar."  Nevertheless  "  they  say  " 
that  in  a  few  brief  moments  this  dying  husband  had 
forgotten  that  love  ever  takes  a  palpable  expression ; 
that  the  object  of  affection  requires  food  and  raiment, 
is  chilled  by  the  hoar  frost,  and  scorched  by  the  fierce 
sunlight.  If  Jack,  his  dog,  had  been  seven  thousand 
miles  away  and  destitute,  he  would  not  have  been 
forgotten. 


THE  SCIENCE  OF  GOVERNMENT.  49 

Once,  when  we  were  at  Santa  Rosa,  Jack  was 
stolen  from  the  office  in  the  city ;  and  Mr.  Stow  sat 
at  the  telegraph-operator's  desk  for  three  consecu- 
tive hours,  and  sent  and  received  twelve  despatches, 
and  was  in  a  state  of  the  greatest  anxiety  until  the 
wires  flashed  the  welcome  news  that  a  large  reward 
had  safely  returned  the  missing  dog.  Now  this  — 
apparently  —  kind-hearted  man  is  branded,  after 
death,  by  his  professed  best  friends,  with  the  stigma 
of  hypocrisy  and  dishonesty  toward  his  absent  wife ; 
a  wife  whom  he  had  sent  away  a  few  months  before, 
with  so  many  prayers  for  her  safety,  and  so  much 
care  for  her  every  want,  and  whose  letters  to  her  had 
breathed  such  deathless  affection.  In  the  last  letter 
I  received  from  him  he  said,  "  Darling,  I  am  so 
lonely  without  you !  To  think  of  the  leagues,  the 
cruel  leagues,  that  separate  us  I  And  yet  — 

1  The  widest  land 

Doom  takes  to  part  us  leaves  thy  heart  in  mine, 
With  pulses  that  beat  double.     What  I  do 
And  what  I  dream  include  thee,  as  the  wine 
Must  taste  of  its  own  grapes.     And,  when  I  sue 
God  for  myself,  he  hears  that  name  of  thine, 
And  sees  within  my  eyes  the  tears  of  two.' 

During  the  day  I  do  not  mind  it  so  much;  but 
when  I  face  homeward  (home!  there  is  no  home 
where  you  are  not)  such  a  sense  of  desolation  sweeps 
over  my  soul  as  I  cannot  well  express  to  you.  Gertie 
—  the  dear  child  —  does  all  that  she  can  for  me ;  but 
she  cannot  take  the  place  of  her  sister  who  is  so  far 


50  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

awa}r,  dying,  perhaps,  without  my  ministering  hand 
upon  her  brow.  O  God  !  When  I  think  of  the  dan- 
gers, by  land  and  sea,  which  you  are  daily  exposed 
to,  my  poor  brain  reels.  When  night  folds  down  her 
sable  wings,  shutting  out  all  the  light,  a  vague, 
indefinable  feeling  of  inexpressible  sadness  comes 
over  me,  that  we  shall  never  see  each  other  again. 
I  came  across  this  little  sentiment  from  the  graceful 
pen  of  Miss  Muloch  the  other  day.  It  touched  a 
vibrating  cord  in  my  own  bosom  ;  and  I  enclose  it  to 
you,  thinking  perhaps  that  it  will  awaken  a  respon- 
sive thrill  in  yours. 

*  Oh  the  happy  meeting  from  over  the  sea! 
When  I  love  my  friend,  and  my  friend  loves  me, 
And  we  stand  face  to  face,  and  for  letters  read 
There  are  endless  words  to  be  heard  and  said, 
With  an  anxious  glance,  half  shy,  half  strange, 
That  asks,  "  After  all,  is  there  any  change?  " 
Till  we  settle  down  as  we  used  to  be  — 
For  I  love  my  friend,  and  my  friend  loves  me. 
Oh  the  blessed  meeting  of  lovers  true  ! 
'Gainst  whom  Fate  has  done  all  that  Fate  could  do, 
And  then  sunk,  vanquished,  while  over  these  slain 
Dead  weeks,  months,  years,  of  parting  and  pain, 
Hope's  rosy  banner  waves  gallant  afar, 
Untainted,  untorn,  from  the  cruel  war; 
And  the  heaven  of  the  future,  wide,  cloudless,  and  bright, 
Arches  above  them  —  God  guards  the  right  1 
But  oh  for  the  meeting  to  come  one  day  1 
Wher.  the  spirit  slips  out  of  the  tired  clay; 
Wheu  the  standers-by,  with  a  tender  sign, 
Shall  mutely  cover  this  face  of  mine, 


THE  SCIENCE   OF  GOVERNMENT.  51 

And  I  leap  forward,  — whither  none  know,  — 
But  outward,  onward,  as  spirits  go  ; 
And  eye  to  eye,  without  fear,  I  see 
God  and  my  lost  as  they  see  me.' 

"  I  sometimes  feel  that  this  depression  is  a  premo- 
nition of  my  coming  dissolution.  Forgive  me  for 
saying  it.  I  do  not  do  it  to  alarm  you,  but  only  to 
let  you  know,  that,  should  the  '  call '  come  in  your 
absence,  I  should,  if  permitted,  come  to  you  in  my 
outward  and  onward  flight,  and  you  should  feel  '  my 
spirit's  wing  upon  your  cheek.' ' 

Perhaps  his  "  spirit's  wing  "  did  touch  my  cheek  ; 
for,  the  night  following  the  day  that  he  died,  I 
dreamed  that  he  was  dead.  These  things  are  as 
mysterious  as  death  itself,  and  recall  what  he  said  to 
jue  upon  this  subject  when  I  first  knew  him :  "  We 
think  we  know  each  other,  and  see  clearly;  but  we 
do  not,  and  never  shall  till  this  shadowy  veil  of  life 
is  rent  asunder." 

And  this  is  the  man  who  was  perfectly  lucid  (so 
they  say)  in  his  last  moments ;  who  made  presents, 
and  put  all  the  property  into  the  hands  of  his  wife's 
most  implacable  foe,  but  forgot  to  make  his  sister- 
in-law  any  present,  —  she  who  had  taken  such  tender 
care  of  him,  and  to  whom  he  turned  in  the  agonies 
of  death,  and  breathed  forth  his  last  sigh  within  her 
arms.  How  very  reasonable  it  looks  ! 

Why  was  not  the  two  thousand  dollars  that  I  had 
asked  for  by  letter  despatched  to  me  from  the  Bank 
of  California,  which  issued  the  letter  of  credit? 


52  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

That  bank  was  owing  Mr.  Stow,  at  the  time,  several 
thousand  dollars.  And,  if  the  letter  was  not  all 
paid  for,  why  was  not  the  balance  subtracted  from 
the  sum  owed  my  husband,  instead  of  robbing  me 
of  any  portion  of  it  ?  The  Probate  Court  awarded 
me  seven  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  to  pay  my  bills 
and  return  home,  and  one  hundred  dollars  a  month, 
for  my  support  during  one  year.  The  widow  of  J. 
W.  Stow  is  to  be  housed,  clothed,  fed,  doctored,  and 
nursed,  —  if  sick,  —  on  a  hundred  dollars  a  month, 
besides  paying  a  lawyer  an  unknown  sum  for  getting 
it !  I  never,  since  I  arrived  at  woman's  estate,  have 
been  compelled  to  live  upon  so  small  a  sum  —  until 
now.  Why,  I  think  that  Mr.  Stow  gave  away  more 
than  that  amount,  directly  and  indirectly,  every 
month  during  our  eight  years  of  married  life. 

I  say  it,  and  I  say  it  fearlessly,  that  such  a  sum 
offered  to  J.  W.  Stow's  widow,  as  a  sufficient 
amount  to  keep  her  in  her  usual  style  of  living  pre- 
vious to  his  death,  —  even  though  it  were  not  con- 
tested, —  is  an  outrage  upon  his  memory,  and  a  fla- 
grant insult  upon  his  mode  of  life  and  his  provision 
for  his  family.  It  says  in  the  California  probate  law, 
that  the  widow  is  to  have  a  support  for  one  year  at 
least,  when  the  estate  is  insolvent,  equal  to  her  for- 
mer style  of  living. 

Does  the  probate  judge  suppose  that  J.  W.  Stow 
lived  in  an  unfurnished  domicile  which  cost  less 
than  a  hundred  dollars  a  month,  let  alone  every 
thing  else  ?  He  gave  the  rent  of  one  of  our  houses 


THE  SCIENCE   OF  GOVERNMENT.  53 

for  two  years  and  a  half  to  one  of  his  employees,  and 
paid  the  water-rent.  The  house  rented  for  a  hun- 
dred dollars  a  month,  and  the  water  was  four  dollars 
extra ;  making  a  hundred  and  four  dollars  a  nonth 
that  he  gave  to  one  individual. 

For  seven  years  previous  to  my  marrying  Mr. 
Stow,  I  was  actively  engaged  much  of  the  time  in 
humanitarian  work,  and  thousands  of  dollars  in  pub- 
lic funds  have  passed  through  my  hands.  But  now 
a  person  who  has  been  an  employee  of  my  husband 
is  administering  upon  the  estate  without  bonds,  —  a 
person  who  has  never  risen  to  first  principles,  and 
whose  judgment  I  would  not  defer  to  in  the  most 
trivial  concerns  of  life.  Besides,  he  is  my  bitter 
enemy.  I  feel,  and  justly,  that  I  am  far  more  com- 
petent than  he  to  adjust  my  financial  affairs,  as  I 
have  had  large  experience,  and  as  I  have  all  my  time, 
and  every  one  —  it  is  a  most  human  law  —  works 
best  for  his  own  interest.  Had  I  been  by  the  bed- 
side of  my  husband  during  his  last  illness,  this 
enemy  would  never  had  power  over  my  effects.  At 
one  time,  when  we  were  at  Sacramento,  Mr.  Stow 
was  taken  very  ill,  and  thought  he  was  dying.  He 
said  to  me,  "  Darling,  I  leave  every  thing  to  you.  I 
have  unlimited  confidence  in  your  executive  ability." 
No  other  name  was  so  much  as  mentioned.  In  the 
semblance  of  death  he  thought  only  of  me  and  my 
future  well-being,  while  in  the  reality  (they  say)  I 
was  entirely  forgotten.  I  don't  believe  it;  and  there 
is  not  strength  enough  in  the  English  language  to 


54  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

make  me  believe  it,  either.  I  believe  that  I  was 
abundantly  provided  for,  and  that  the  facts  have 
been  suppressed. 

Every  person  acquainted  with  J.  W.  Stow  knew 
the  pride  of  the  man,  let  alone  his  honor  as  a  gentle- 
man, his  benevolence  as  a  humanitarian,  and  his  social 
position  in  the  community.  Now,  taking  the  most 
extreme  case :  suppose  that  he  had  sent  abroad  an 
enemy,  with  a  thorough  business  understanding  that 
the  enemy  should  depend  upon  him  financially  ;  and, 
in  the  face  of  all  this,  that  he  should  die,  with 
all  his  mental  faculties  unimpaired,  and  leave  this 
person  destitute  and  unprovided  for,  thousands  of 
miles  from  home  and  friends :  what  would  be  thought 
of  such  a  transaction  ?  It  would  be  monstrous  to 
to  treat  an  enemy  thus ;  but  what  can  be  said  when 
such  a  course  is  pursued  towards  a  wife  ?  I  can  add 
no  stronger  evidence  in  regard  to  the  character  of 
the  man  than  the  following  expression  of  the  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce :  — 

Be  it  resolved  by  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  San  Franciscoj 
That  in  Joseph  W.  Stow  we  recognize  a  rare  combination  of 
those  qualities  of  head  and  heart  that  mark  the  able  man  of 
business,  the  true  friend,  and  the  public-spirited  citizen.  His 
quick  perception,  sound  judgment  of  men  and  affairs,  ready 
tact,  indomitable  energy,  and  unflagging  industry,  gave  him  a 
permanent  place  in  the  front  ranks  of  mercantile  life,  and 
enabled  him  frequently  to  cany  on  at  once,  and  successfully, 
several  operations,  each  one  of  which  might  have  overtasked 
the  faculties  of  an  ordinary  man.  Of  fluent  tongue  and  facile 
pen,  he  waa  able  to  exercise  a  high  degree  of  influence  upon 


THE  SCIENCE  OF  GOVERNMENT.  55 

public  opinion;  yet  that  influence  was  always  exerted  in  pro- 
moting the  highest  good  of  the  community.  Combining  rare 
versatility  of  talent  with  never-failing  brightness  and  geniality 
of  temper,  he  attracted  men  towards  him  from  all  classes  of 
society  ;  and  so  kind  and  genial  was  his  disposition,  that  of  all 
the  thousands  who  came  in  contact  with  him,  — 

1  None  knew  him  but  to  love  him  ; 
None  named  him  but  to  praise.' 

"  Yet  it  was  in  his  character  of  philanthropist  that  he  most 
endeared  himself  to  the  hearts  of  all  who  sympathize  with 
misery  and  destitution.  In  the  organization  and  administra- 
tion of  public  charities,  none  of  his  contemporaries  have  ex- 
ceeded his  sacrifices.  His  advice,  his  means,  his  priceless  labor, 
and  his  time,  were  always  at  the  service  of  the  unfortunate. 
His  memory  will  ever  be  green  in  the  hearts  of  hundreds  who, 
but  for  him,  would  have  endured  untold  aggravations  of  the 
sufferings  he  so  kindly  and  promptly  relieved. 

"  Resolved,  That  this  Chamber  will  ever  recall  with  grateful 
affection  the  virtues  and  accomplishments  of  our  late  friend 
and  former  vice-president,  so  influential  in  its  counsels,  and  so 
bright  an  ornament  of  society. 

"  Resolved,  That  we  tender  to  the  widow  and  relatives  of 
the  deceased  our  heartfelt  sympathy  in  this  season  of  their 
bereavement,  and  that  the  secretary  be  instructed  to  furnish 
them  a  copy  of  these  resolutions,  suitably  engrossed,  under 
the  seal  of  the  Chamber,  and  to  spread  the  same  upon  the 
minuteo." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

LETTER   OP   CREDIT. 
Inest  dementia  forti. 

I  WAS  sick  unto  death  for  six  weeks  ;  made  so  by 
the  annoyance  and  vexatious  delays  of  this  probate 
confiscation  business.  During  that  time  I  wrote  the 
probate  judge,  the  executor's  lawyer,  and  the  non- 
executive executor,  and  begged  them  to  grant  me  a 
sufficient  amount  of  money  to  pay  my  board-bill,  to 
hire  a  nurse,  and  to  buy  some  medicine.  A  most 
dignified  and  manly  reticence  was  maintained  on  all 
sides.  When  I  was  able  to  go  out,  I  went  to  the 
judge,  and  asked  him  for  an  order  for  my  money. 
He  replied,  "  It  is  a  contested  case.  I  cannot  grant 
an  order  without  a  hearing  on  the  other  side."  — 
"  But  why,"  I  urged,  "  must  I  abide  this  delay  ?  I 
have  been  very  ill,  and  am  not  able  to  be  out  to-day ; 
but  I  am  threatened  with  a  lien  on  my  house  "  (pri- 
vate property),  "  and  must  have  some  money.  What 
right  has  this  court  to  listen  to  any  contestation 
whiijh  takes  the  bread  out  of  the  mouths  of  widows 
and  orphans?  Why  has  this  rich  bank  a  right  to 
withhold  my  allowance  money  to  pay  for  my  letter 

66 


LETTER  OF  CREDIT.  57 

of  credit,  when  at  the  present  moment  it  is  owing 
the  estate  several  thousand  dollars  ?  Why  am  I 
thus  persecuted  ?  "  The  judge  vouchsafed  no  reply 
to  my  pertinent  questions,  but  turned  with  a  bland 
smile  to  a  lawyer  who  had  a  fresh  widow  for  the 
probate  frying-pan. 

Who  makes  it  their  business  to  create  such  heinous 
laws,  that  oblige  me  or  any  other  widow  to  plead  as 
suppliant  paupers  for  our  own  earnings?  —  money 
which  has  been  earned  as  a  wife  ;  for,  if  a  wife  does 
not  earn  money  as  a  wife,  then  let  all  women  look 
to  it  in  future,  so  that  they  may  not  take  a  leap  into 
the  darkness,  to  have  time  to  repent  at  leisure  in  the 
sad  light  of  dawning  truth. 

I  said  to  Mr.  Pringle,  the  executor's  lawyer,  "  Do 
you  think  that  Mr.  Stow  could  have  been  in  his  right 
mind  when  he  made  presents,  and  gave  nothing  to 
my  sister,  who  cared  for  him  so  tenderly,  and  with 
whom  he  lived,  and  would  live  with  no  other  person, 
during  my  absence  ?  Do  you  think  it  probable  that 
he  could  have  forgotten  us  both,  while  he  remem- 
bered others,  -and  gave  away  every  thing  of  value 
that  he  possessed,  even  to  his  dog  ?  Do  you  think,  if 
Jack  had  been  in  France,  that  Mr.  Stow  would  have 
forgotibi}  to  provide  for  his  return  ?  "  The  lawyer 
made  answer :  "  Mr.  Stow  paid  a  $3,000  mortgage 
on  your  place  after  he  was  taken  sick." — "What 
of  that?"  I  continued:  "  that  was  money  that 
I  had  placed  in  his  hands  to  be  held  in  sacred 
trust,  before  I  married  him ;  and  yon  are  perfectly 


58  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

familiar  with  all  the  details  of  that  transaction. 
That  money  would  have  been  paid  years  ago,  and 
the  mortgage  raised,  only  for  the  advice  of  the 
lawyer,  who  made  an  egregious  blunder  at  the  time 
of  the  purchase.  Supposing  that  money  had  been 
community  money  instead  of  all  mine  :  what  then  ? 
What  had  that  to  do  with  the  case?  Would  that 
have  provided  me  with  bread  in  Europe,  or  paid  my 
passage  home  ?  That  argument  has  not  the  weight 
or  substance  of  a  straw." 

I  returned  to  San  Francisco  on  the  first  day  of 
November,  1874,  with  only  half  a  dollar  in  my  purse. 
I  went  the  next  day  to  the  Bank  of  California,  and 
said  to  the  president,  "There  are  $150  yet  due 
on  my  letter  of  credit;  and,  as  I  have  been  in- 
formed that  the  entire  face  was  paid  before  my 
husband's  death,  it  will  much  oblige  me  if  you 
will  give  me  the  balance."  He  looked  at  the 
letter,  and  said,  "  No :  you  have  overdrawn,  as  to 
time  of  payment,  already."  —  "But,"  I  continued, 
"  I  greatly  need  the  money ;  and  if  it  has  not  all 
been  paid,  as  you  affirm,  you  can  take  the  balance 
out  of  the  money  which  this  bank  is  owing  the 
estate  for  services  rendered  it  by  my  late  husband. 
The  letter  was  a  free  gift  to  me  from  Mr.  Stow, 
many  months  before  his  death,  for  a  specific  purpose, 
—  to  travel  in  Europe  with,  —  and  for  that  I  have 
used  it.  This  rich  bank,  whose  officers,  many  of 
them,  were  Mr.  Stow's  intimate  friends  and  co-labor- 
ers in  the  marts  of  business,  surely  would  not  wrong 


LETTER  OF  CREDIT.  59 

his  widow  by  withholding  any  portion  of  a  gift  to 
her  from  him,  even  though  the  law  is  so  cruel  that  it 
would  protect  it  in  so  doing." 

No,  it  would  do  nothing  of  the  kind ;  and  it  fur- 
ther demonstrated  its  power  as  a  creditor  by  throt- 
tling the  Probate  Court  for  months,  so  that  I  could 
not  get  my  allowance  money.  I  had  to  go  to  the  ex- 
pense of  employing  a  lawyer  to  get  it,  which  took 
seven  weeks  ere  I  obtained  one  dollar  of  what  the 
court  had  allowed.  I  was  driven  to  such  an  extremity 
that  I  was  obliged  to  sell  my  silver  and  a  portion  of 
my  library  to  get  the  money  to  pay  my  taxes  (with- 
out representation).  This  set  of  silver  was  the  first 
present  that  my  husband  made  me  after  our  marriage. 
One  lovely  morning,  soon  after  we  commenced 
housekeeping,  it  arrived  from  New  York,  and  was 
sent  up  to  our  beautiful  home  on  Rincon  Hill.  He 
was  delighted  to  think  it  pleased  me  so  much.  I 
think  if  he  could  have  cast  a  horoscope  of  the  horri- 
ble future,  and  seen  me  plodding  round  the  streets  of 
San  Francisco,  and  begging  acquaintances  to  take 
five  or  ten  dollars'  worth  of  tickets  for  the  raffle,  he 
would  have  felt  somewhat  differently. 

I  said  to  the  probate  judge,  "  Do  you  suppose 
that  my  husband  made  no  provision  for  my  coming 
home?  Would  you  have  left  your  wife  thus  beg- 
gared?"—  "No,"  he  replied,  "I  should  not  have 
left  my  wife  thus ;  but  Mr.  Stow  had  a  perfect  right 
to  leave  you  thus.  The  law  protects  his  acts  in  so 
doing.  No  one  can  divine  his  motives."  —  "But,"  I 


60  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

pleaded,  "  I  have  a  prior  claim  as  a  wife  to  adminis- 
ter upon  my  estate ;  and  for  that  I  should  be  paid 
money,  which  I  greatly  need."  —  "  No,  you  have  not," 
he  made  reply,  "  if  he  appointed  some  one  else  over 
your  estate."  —  "  But  this  person  had  Mr.  Stow  per- 
fectly under  his  control  for  ten  days  before  he  died ; 
and,  bes'.des,  I  will  not  outrage  my  womanhood  by 
speaking  to  this  executor ;  he  is  my  enemy,  and  that 
of  itself  should  be  a  sufficient  reason  for  his  removal. 
I  have  all  my  time ;  and  he  takes  such  scraps  of  time 
as  he  pleases  from  his  legitimate  business,  to  attend 
to  mine.  If  he  were  an  honorable  man,  he  would 
relinquish  his  trust  thus  questionably  obtained." 
The  judge  replied,  "  J  will  answer  your  questions  in 
order.  First,  Mr.  Stow  had  undisputed  right  to 
appoint  whomsoever  he  chose  over  your  estate,  —  as 
you  are  pleased  to  call  it,  —  and  you  can  remove  the 
appointee  only  by  proving  that  he  is  squandering  the 
property,  or  that  he  used  duress  and  undue  influence 
to  get  the  position.  Second,  his  being  your  ene- 
my has  nothing  to  do  in  the  matter.  When  a  hus- 
band dies,  the  law  gives  over  the  wife  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  her  bitterest  enemy,  if  he  has  been  shrewd 
enough  to  manipulate  the  sufferer  into  granting  the 
boon.  Third,  your  having  all  your  time,  and  he 
having  his  business  to  attend  to  as  well  as  yours, 
does  not  alter  the  case  at  all.  The  law  supposes 
that  he  will  be  faithful  to  the  trust." 

I  would  advise  every  fiancee  to  require  an  ante- 
nuptial contract  that  no  executors  should  be  placed 


LETTER  OF  CREDIT.  61 

over  her,  should  she  survive  the  prospective  husband. 
In  Hungary  the  widow  remains  the  head  of  the 
family  as  the  father  was.  As  long  as  she  lives,  she 
is  the  mistress  of  the  property  of  the  deceased  hus- 
band. The  family  is  in  no  way  broken  up,  and  its 
household  gods  scattered  to  the  four  winds,  as  in 
our  nation. 

When  people  say  to  me,  "  The  laws  of  California 
are  excellent :  they  could  not  be  improved,"  I  reply, 
"  He  jests  at  scars  who- never  felt  a  wound."  I 
understand  probate  law  in  this  State  by  its  practical 
workings  in  my  own  case.  My  pictures  were  stripped 
from  the  walls  by  executors,  my  writing-desk  taken, 
Mr.  Stow's  gold  watch  and  chain,  his  sleeve-buttons, 
canes,  and  every  vestige  of  his  handwriting,  ser- 
mons of  Dr.  Wadsworth's,  his  own  written  speeches, 
private  correspondence,  &c.  When  I  asked  the 
judge  for  an  order  for  the  return  of  these  things,  he 
said,  "  Are  the  pictures  valuable  paintings  ?  If  they 
are,  I  cannot  issue  an  order  for  them.  Should  the 
estate  prove  insolvent,  they  would  have  to  be  sold  to 
pay  honest  debts."  It  is  supposable,  with  the  pro- 
bate judge,  that  all  estates  are  insolvent  until  they 
are  proved  otherwise  ;  so  that  nothing  of  value  is 
left  to  the  plucked  widow  in  this  high  court  of 
injustice,  inquisition,  and  confiscation. 

Mr.  Stow  owned  no  real  estate  :  therefore  I  have  no 
homestead  which  belonged  to  him  and  me  ;  no  horses 
and  carriage,  or  other  live  stock  and  valuables  that 
the  law  allows  to  such  as  have  them.  I  had  no 


62  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

month's  supply  of  provisions,  because  I  was  not 
keeping  house.  No  money  was  given  me  as  an  equiv- 
alent. A  housed  widow  is  fed  for  a  month  by  the 
Christian  Probate  Court,  while  it  lets  the  unhoused 
starve  or  beg,  or  prostitute  herself,  if  the  allowance 
is  contested.  Who  stood  godfather  at  the  birth  of 
this  kind  of  justice  ? 

On  the  Saturday  before  Mr.  Stow's  death,  (he  died 
on  Tuesday)  they  thought  he  was  dying,  and  great 
was  the  rush  of  the  moths  to  this  flickering  and  wan- 
ing light.  These  honorable  men  waited  till  the  last 
moment  to  adjust  all  so  closely  that  the  absent  could 
find  no  joint  which  had  not  been  doubly  clinched 
against  her  efforts  to  obtain  her  own.  A  law  which 
protects  such  vile  proceedings  is  a  criminal  law.  A 
law  that  withholds  a  widow's  property  from  her  own 
supervision,  when  she  is  in  every  way  competent  to 
attend  to  its  management,  is  a  heinous  and  barbarous 
law.  No  man  has  any  just  right,  excepting  by  my 
choosing,  to  sit  in  judgment  over  my  substance  after 
the  death  of  my  husband. 

What  man  in  this  Republic  would  like  to  have  his 
fortune  taken  out  of  his  hands,  and  placed  where  it 
would  be  manipulated  by  his  bitterest  enemy,  —  a 
person  full  of  schemes  for  enriching  himself?  Are 
men  so  honest  nowadays  that  they  can  observe  the 
Golden  Rule  without  some  kind  of  surveillance  ?  I 
think  not!  The  sublime  history  of  municipal  affairs 
in  the  city  in  the  East  by  the  sea,  and  one  in  the 
West  by  the  sea,  does  not  warrant  any  such  conclu- 


LETTER  OF  CREDIT.  63 

sion.  Here  is  a  man  acting  without  bonds,  having 
every  thing  his  own  way,  giving  such  scraps  of  time 
to  this  matter  —  from  his  own  legitimate  business  —  as 
please  him.  He  has  no  more  right  in  its  true  sense 
to  sit  in  judgment  over  my  affairs,  than  he  has  to 
preside  over  the  affairs  of  the  supreme  judge  of  the 
United  States. 

A  dying  man,  at  the  last  gasp  almost,  permits  an 
employee,  a  subordinate,  to  become  arbitrator  over 
the  widow's  financial  destinies ;  a  person  who  has 
never  risen  to  first  principles.  To  set  such  an  infe- 
rior personage  over  a  capable  woman  is  a  gross  insult 
to  womanhood,  wifehood,  motherhood,  and  widow- 
hood. 

My  husband  was  not  to  blame.  For  ten  days 
before  his  death  he  was  not  a  responsible  agent.  He 
was  Tinder  perfect  psychological  control.  Another's 
mind  swayed  his.  No  free  volition  of  J.  W.  Stow's 
guided  the  hand  which  signed  away  our  community 
property,  making  his  wife  a  pauper  as  far  as  he  was 
concerned.  It  is  a  most  vile  and  unjust  law  that 
permits  such  a  flagrant  outrage  upon  any  freeborn 
daughter  of  America.  Why  call  us  freeborn,  if  we 
are  not  to  live  in  freedom,  and  do  whatever  seemeth 
good  unto  us  with  that  which  is  our  own  ?  Why 
tantalize  us  with  the  semblance  while  the  substance 
is  withheld  ? 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  JUST  LAWS   OF   CALIFORNIA. 

Latet  anguis  in  herbd. 

THERE  is  any  amount  of  vainglorious  boasting  in 
California,  about  the  just  laws  which  men  have  made 
to  govern  women.  Ignorance  of  the  real  facts  in  the 
matter  covers  a  multitude  of  failings  in  these  just 
laws. 

A  widow  has  half  of  the  joint  property  if  the  hus- 
band does  not  convey  it  away  before  his  death,  and 
even  two-thirds  and  three-fourths  in  certain  cases 
where  there  are  no  children.  But  we  must  begin  at 
the  root  of  the  evil,  and  trace  this  property  question 
through  all  its  various  ramifications ;  then  we  can 
weigh  the  sands  of  gold,  ingots  of  silver,  and  kernels 
of  wheat,  as  we  find  them,  washed  clean  of  the  sands 
of  uncertainty,  and  blown  clear  of  the  chaff  of  doubt. 

A  writer  says,  "  Law  is  comparatively  a  sealed 
book  to  women ;  and  most  women  practically  say, 
'  Where  ignorance  is  bliss,  'tis  folly  to  be  wise.'  The 
saddest  part  is,  that  in  this  they  are  at  least  half 
right;  for  a  knowledge  of  some  of  the  laws  which 
govern  women  is  any  thing  but  blissful." 

64 


THE  JUST  LAWS   OF  CALIFORNIA.  65 

The  California  Civil  Code  says,  "  The  property 
of  the  community  is  not  liable  for  the  contracts  of 
the  wife  made  after  marriage,  unless  secured  by  a 
pledge  or  mortgage  thereof,  executed  by  the  hus- 
band." The  husband  may  be  a  confirmed  invalid, 
supported  by  the  pen  of  his  wife ;  a  gentleman  of 
leisure,  supported  by  the  wife's  genius  upon  the  lyric 
or  histrionic  stage ;  an  inveterate  drunkard,  sup- 
ported by  a  wife's  manual  labor  at  the  sewing- 
machine,  wash-tub,  and  scrub-brush,  —  and  yet  this 
worthless  and  expensive  appendage  the  just  law 
makes  all-powerful,  while  the  real  useful  member  of 
society  is  trodden  under  foot  and  spit  upon,  as  far  as 
any  legal  right  is  concerned. 

Again :  "  The  husband  has  the  management  and 
control  of  the  community  property,  with  like  abso- 
lute power  of  disposition  (other  than  testamentary) 
as  he  has  of  his  separate  estate ; "  and  even  then, 
with  almost  his  last  breath,  he  can  convey  away  the 
community  property  so  deftly  that  no  known  law 
can  reach  it.  The  wife  has  no  legal  power  to  re- 
strain the  husband  from  indorsing  notes  for  Tom, 
Dick,  and  Harry,  his  dear  friends,  —  good  fellows 
enough,  no  doubt,  but  always  out  at  the  fingers  and 
toes  as  far  as  money  is  concerned,  —  and  thus  be 
ruined ;  or  by  plunging  into  all  sorts  of  reckless 
speculation,  simply  because  another  best  friend 
grows  rich  upon  one  per  cent,  and  he  —  the  husband 
—  must  add  his  quota  to  the  accumulating  pile  of 
such  unconscionable  money-graspers. 


66  '  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

To  cope  with  such  odds,  is  like  wrestling  with  a 
malaria,  or  battling  with  windmills.  The  silent  re- 
served force  of  the  wife,  that  we  hear  so  much 
about,  remains  a  silent  reserved  force  still,  until 
utter  ruin  befalls  her  and  hers.  And  then,  if  the 
husband  is  not  an  unregenerate  fool,  he  may  wake 
up  to  find  that  Wisdom  points  out  a  new  departure 
in  the  future,  and  that  he  will  take  counsel  upon  the 
conservative  hearthstone  of  home,  rather  than  at  the 
Club,  Stock  Exchange,  Chamber  of  Commerce,  or 
the  Bankers'  Board. 

A  woman  at  marriage  forfeits  all  legal  freedom, 
unless  she  has  property  in  her  own  right.  Her 
individuality  is  confiscated  upon  the  rose-wreathed 
altar  of  Hymen.  She  may  have  sold  herself  for  a 
home,  or  she  may  have  married  for  love  ;  it  is  all  the 
same:  her  place  and  her  duties  are  made  very  plain 
by  inexorable  laws.  She  is  a  most  silent  partner. 

A  great  statesman  has  said,  "  No  person  shall  be 
deprived  of  life,  liberty,  or  property,  without  due 
process  of  law ;  which  means,  without  presentment 
or*  other  judicial  proceedings.  These  words,  bor- 
rowed from  Magna  Charta,  constitute  a  safeguard  for 
all,  nor  can  they  be  invoked  by  the  criminal  more 
than  by  the  slave ;  for  in  our  Constitution  they  are 
applicable  to  every  '  person J  without  distinction  of 
color  or  condition.  The  criminal  is  entitled  to  their 
protection." 

The  criminal's  property  —  in  certain  cases  —  is 
protected,  but  not  the  wife's.  She  has  no  protection 


THE  JUST  LAWS   OF  CALIFORNIA.  67 

against  the  squandering  proclivities  of  her  husband, 
He  can  waste  every  thing,  and  the  law  grants  her  no 
redress.  Besides,  a  criminal  is  a  "person;"  while  a 
wife  is  not  recognized  as  such  in  law,  excepting  to 
be  taxed  without  representation,  and  hung  without 
a  trial  by  a  jury  of  her  peers.  The  sovereign  people 
of  America  —  it  is  claimed  —  are  gentlemen.  We 
women,  it  seems,  are  neither  persons  nor  people ;  in 
other  words,  we  are  neither  root,  trunk,  nor  branch, 
but  a  kind  of  nondescript  fungus,  lichen,  or  perhaps, 
more  appropriately  speaking,  a  mistletoe-bough, — 
drawing  our  life  and  very  existence  from  some  man. 

Again:  "No  person,  whether  a  parent  or  other- 
wise, has  any  power  as  a  guardian  of  property, 
except  by  appointment.  In  all  cases,  the  court 
making  the  appointment  of  a  guardian  has  exclu- 
sive jurisdiction  to  control  him."  A  father  never 
forfeits  the  control  of  his  offspring  or  property,  only 
by  crime,  insanity,  and  idiocy ;  therefore  this  pro- 
vision is  exclusively  for  the  benefit  of  the  mother. 

During  the  husband's  life  he  is  the  legal  guardian 
and  dictator  of  the  wife,  children,  and  property ;  and 
at  his  death  the  Probate  Court  steps  into  his  shoes, 
and  becomes  the  guardian  and  dictator  of  all  the 
outgoings  and  incomings  of  the  widow,  taking  charge 
of  her  substance  and  her  children.  And  if  she 
marries  again  it  still  retains  its  power  over  the  latter. 
She  ceases  to  be  a  free  agent  the  moment  she  is 
caught  in  the  matrimonial  noose.  The  silken  bonds 
too  often  prove  bonds  of  steel  and  links  of  iron,  until 


68  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

merciful  death  relaxes  their  unyielding  power,  and 
they  fall  from  the  crucified  body,  stained  and  cor- 
roded with  the  blood  that  has  been  wrung,  drop  by 
drop,  from  the  torn  heart  of  the  sufferer.  I  am  not 
surprised  to  hear  a  prominent  speaker  call  this  state 
of  society  a  "  savage  civilization,  and  an  infidel 
Christianity."  It  is  false  to  every  principle  of  free- 
dom in  this  connection ;  a  traitor  to  justice,  and  a 
foe  to  humanity. 

Again  :  "  Between  parents  adversely  claiming  the 
custody  or  guardianship,  neither  parent  is  entitled  to 
it  by  right ;  but,  other  things  being  equal,  if  the 
child  be  of  tender  years,  it  should  be  given  to  the 
mother;  if  it  be  of  an  age  to  require  education 
and  preparation  for  labor  or  business,  then  to  the 
father."  In  other  words,  if  the  child  is  still  mewling 
and  puking  in  the  nurse's  arms,  the  father  has  no 
stomach  for  it;  but  if  it  has  passed  the  period  of 
mumps,  chicken-pox,  and  measles,  then  it  is  to  be 
handed  over  to  the  father,  whatever  his  vices  may 
be,  —  as  regards  morality,  —  for  of  course  the  mother 
is  incapable  of  directing  its  education  and  future 
pursuits  in  life.  A  person  whom  the  law  compels  to 
have  a  guardian  the  moment  she  is  married  certainly 
should  not  have  the  audacity  to  aspire  to  that  posi- 
tion herself  while  under  the  ban ;  for  should  she 
marry  again,  after  a  divorce  from  her  first  lord  and 
master,  there  would  be  guardian  upon  guardian,  pre- 
cept upon  precept,  example  upon  example,  —  a  most 
demoralizing  and  unhealthful  precedent. 


THE  JUST  LAWS  OF  CALIFORNIA.  69 

Again :  "  A  guardian  appointed  by  the  Court  has 
power  over  the  person  and  property  of  the  ward, 
unless  otherwise  ordained."  This  is  an  abominable 
law,  and  has  been  productive  of  a  vast  amount  of 
sin,  shame,  and  suffering.  A  dying  man  chooses  a 
brother,  or  bosom  friend,  for  the  guardian  of  his 
young  daughter  —  more  from  custom,  probably,  than 
from  any  lack  of  confidence  in  the  ability  of  his  wife. 
The  child  in  a  few  brief  years  has  arrived  at  woman's 
estate,  and  is  very  much  attached  to  her  guardian ; 
an  attachment  which  may  end  in  ruin,  as  it  has  in 
hundreds  of  cases,  thus  wrecking  the  happiness  of 
two,  and  perhaps  three  families,  should  the  ward 
have  married.  If  a  husband,  son,  or  brother  of  mine 
were  to  be  chosen  guardian  of  a  little  girl,  I  should 
use  all  my  influence  to  have  them  decline  to  serve. 
"  Lead  us  not  into  temptation." 

Such  laws  are  against  nature.  A  mother  is  the 
only  proper  guardian  for  a  daughter;  and  if  she  — 
the  mother — be  dead,  then  the  daughter  should 
have  immediately  appointed  over  her  a  woman  guar- 
dian, but  never  a  man.  But,  if  I  am  rightly  in- 
formed, a  wife  cannot  act  as  guardian  of  the  orphan 
daughter  of  her  own  sister,  -even.  Wifehood  incapa- 
citates her  for  the  trust,  by  the  legal  disabilities 
which  hedge  her  in.  Her  husband  can  assume  tne 
responsibility,  but  not  she.  Comment  is  unneces- 
sary ! 

I  may  be  in  error  —  I  hope  1  am  —  in  regard  to 
this  last-named  outrage ;  for  I  do  not  quite  under- 


70  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

stand  some  portions  of  the  Civil  Code  of  California; 
although  I  have  read  them  over  more  than  once. 
This  is  one  of  them :  "  When  a  married  woman  is 
named  as  executrix,  she  may  be  appointed  and  serve 
in  every  respect  as  a  femme  sole"  (Art.  I.  Sect.  1352, 
Civil  Code  Probate  Proceedings).  This  is  another  of 
them,  over  the  leaf :  "  A  married  woman  must  not 
be  appointed  administrator."  It  says  that  she  can 
serve  if  appointed,  but  she  must  not  be  appointed. 
Those  legislative  Solons  at  Sacramento  evidently 
hadn't  the  jewel  of  consistency  anywhere  about 
them  when  these  lucid  laws  were  framed.  This  is 
promising  bread,  but  giving  a  stone. 

Again :  "  The  interest  of  a  wife  is  a  mere  expect- 
ancy, like  the  interest  which  an  heir  may  possess  in 
the  property  of  his  ancestor.  The  law,  in  vesting 
in  the  husband  the  absolute  power  of  disposition 
of  community  property,  as  of  his  separate  estate, 
designed  to  facilitate  its  bona  fide  alienation,  and  to 
prevent  clogs  upon  its  transfer  by  claims  of  the  wife. 
The  husband  has  no  power  to  dispose  of  the  commu- 
nity property  by  devise  defeating  the  rights  of  the 
wife."  I  do  not  understand  this.  It  looks  upon  the 
surface  like  a  flat  contradiction.  The  husband  is 
armed  with  full  power  to  use  the  common  property 
as  though  it  were  entirely  his  separate  estate,  and  yet 
he  cannot  defraud  the  wife  of  her  rights.  This  is  a 
mixed  problem.  I  pray  for  light,  for  I  grope  my 
way  in  Plutonian  darkness  on  this  subject. 

My  brother-in-law  (brothers-in-law  are  almost  as 


THE  JUST  LAWS   OF  CALIFORNIA.  71 

bad,  if  they  chance  to  be  of  the  legal  cloth,  as 
mothers-in-law),  who  is  a  lawyer,  says  that  it  is 
because  I  cannot  rise  to  the  true  dignity  and  under- 
standing of  the  law.  What  a  pity ! 

If  the  interest  of  a  wife  is  a  mere  expectancy, 
what  then  ?  I  may  expect  a  full-freighted  Indiaman 
to  come  sailing  through  the  Golden  Gate  some  fine 
morning,  freighted  with  boundless  wealth  for  my 
enrichment;  yet  this  vague  expectancy  may  never 
fructify.  Or  I  may  have  a  rich  uncle  or  aunt  old 
enough  to  die,  and  believe  that  I  should  not  be  for- 
gotten among  the  legatees;  and  this  hope  too  may 
vanish  in  thin  air  some  day  when  I  learn  that  my 
ancestor  is  dead,  and  the  coveted  gold  has  all  gone 
to  educate  pious  young  men,  of  a  serious  turn  of 
mind,  for  missionaries  to  the  Navigator  Islands. 
Expectancy  is  intangible.  It  is  like  the  sparkling 
bubbles  upon  the  beach,  which  the  next  wave  laps 
up,  and  they  are  seen  no  more. 

The  homestead  is  a  joint  tenancy  (unless  it  is 
made  over  to  the  wife  when  the  husband  is  free 
from  debt,  or  unless  it  was  purchased  with  her 
money  obtained  before  marriage),  and  subject,  at  his 
death,  to  be  sold  for  his  debts,  —  minus  the  $5,000 
reserved  from  it  for  her  benefit,  —  although  such 
debts  had  been  recklessly  contracted  without  her 
consent,  and  against  her  most  vehement  protest. 

What  kind  of  inducement  is  this  for  a  wife  to  be 
prudent  and  economical  ?  The  husband  may  plunge 
into  every  mad  folly  of  speculation,  if  he  can  borrow 


72  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

money  at  one  per  cent,  for  which  he  coins  his  brains, 
manhood's  strength,  and  heart's  blood  ;  running  life's 
engine  at  high  pressure,  fed  with  brain  pitch  and 
blood  turpentine,  until  he  drops  dead  in  the  harness 
in  the  prime  of  manhood,  —  dead  of  high-pressure 
and  the  inflexible  demands  of  one  per  cent ;  wrecked, 
stranded,  in  the  frantic  endeavor  to  grasp  the  ignis 
fatuus  bubble,  wealth.  A  man  with  the  alluring 
bait  of  an  open  till  before  him,  and  once  fairly 
launched  upon  the  giddy  maelstrom  of  speculation, 
is  as  thoroughly  intoxicated  in  the  uncertain  game  as 
ever  the  votaries  of  Baden-Baden  were,  the  Bourse, 
or  Stock  Exchange. 

If  two  men  enter  partnership  together,  one  does 
not*  ruin  the  other  financially,  and  kill  himself  by  so 
doing,  without  the  knowledge  of  the  other,  unless 
that  other  is  a  fool.  A  true  partnership  has  no 
secrets. 

If  a  husband  made  it  a  rule,  on  coming  home  at 
night,  to  talk  over  the  business  of  the  day  with  his 
wife,  he  would  soon  find  an  eager  listener  as  well  as 
an  able  adviser.  He  would  not  feel  so  stupid  and 
sleepy  after  dinner  either,  and  wish  (as  I  heard  a 
most  intelligent  lawyer  in  this  city  say)  that  lie  had 
a  fool  to  talk  to.  A  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
financial  condition  of  the  marriage-firm  is  quite  as 
important  to  the  wife  as  to  the  husband. 


CHAPTER  VJII. 

DISABILITIES   OF  WIVES  AND  WIDOWS. 
Proh  pudor  I 

"  A  WIFE  cannot  make  a  contact  for  the  pay- 
ment of  money.  The  promissory  note  of  a  married 
woman  is  void."  Who  wants  to  transact  business 
with  a  person  thus  law-crippled  ?  She  can  manage 
her  separate  property,  —  oh,  yes !  how  magnanimous ! 
—  but  she  cannot  execute  a  promissory  note  which 
will  stand  the  test  of  the  crucible  of  law. 

This  is  done  solely  to  prevent  a  wife  from  enter- 
ing into  any  business  that  would  make  her  as  inde- 
pendent as  the  husband.  Men  don't  like  financially 
independent  wives.  A  woman  can  become  sole 
trader  only  through  an  expensive  legal  process,  and 
by  proving  that  the  husband's  income  is  not  suffi- 
cient for  the  support  of  the  family. 

The  Civil  Code  says :  "  The  court  shall  proceed 
to  examine  the  applicant,  upon  oath,  as  to  the  reason 
which  induces  her  to  make  the  application  ;  and,,  if 
it  appears  to  the  court  that  a  proper  case  exists,  it 
shall  make  an  order,  which  shall  be  entered  on  the 
minutes,  that  the  applicant  be  authorized  and  em- 


74  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

powered  to  carry  on  in  her  own  name,  and  on  her 
own  account,  the  business,  trade,  or  profession,  or 
art  named  in  the  notice ;  but  the  insufficiency  of  the 
husband,  apart  from  other  causes  tending  to  prevent 
his  supporting  his  family,  shall  not  be  deemed  to  be 
sufficient  cause  for  granting  this  application."  How 
considerate  !  "  The  applicant  must  publish  a  notice 
of  her  intention  of  becoming  sole  trader  in  the  town 
and  county  where  she  has  resided  for  the  term  of 
six  months,  for  four  weeks.  The  notice  must  specify 
the  business,  and  the  day  upon  which  application 
will  be  made,  the  nature  and  place  of  business  pro- 
posed to  be  commenced  by  her,  and  the  name  of  the 
husband.  Ten  days  previous  to  the  day  named  in 
notice,  the  applicant  must  file  a  written  petition  set- 
ting forth,  — 

"  First,  That  the  application  is  made  in  good  faith  "' 
(what  a  playful  way  to  spend  money,  time,  and 
good  feeling  !),  "to  enable  the  applicant  to  support 
herself,  or  herself  and  husband,  and  other  claimants 
upon  her,  giving  the  names  and  relations. 

"  Second,  The  fact  of  the  insufficient  support  from 
her  husband,  and  the  cause  therefor  if  known. 

"  Third,  Any  other  grounds  of  applicant  which  are 
good  cause  for  divorce,  with  a  reason  why  divorce 
is  not  sought."  (The  extra  costs  of  a  divorce  would 
pay  better.) 

"  Fourth,  The  nature  of  the  business  proposed 
to  be  commenced,  and  the  capital  to  be  in  vested 
therein,  if  any,  and  the  source  from  which  it  is 


DISABILITIES   OF   WIVES  AND    WIDOWS.  75 

drawn.  If  the  application  is  granted,  she  becomes 
responsible  for  the  support  of  her  minor  children 
and  all  debts  of  her  contracting  ; "  and,  I  think,  of 
the  husband's  also,  for  this  virtually  puts  her  in  his 
place  at  the  head  of  the  household,  and  thus  she 
becomes  his  guardian. 

O  double-refined  extract  of  the  quintessence  of 
all  masculine  wisdom !  How  magnanimous  thou 
art !  Wherein  lies  the  justice  of  compelling  a  poor 
woman  to  pay  the  (to  her)  exorbitant  sum  of  fifty 
dollars  to  enable  her  to  protect  her  earnings  from  a 
drunken  brute  of  a  husband?  She  cannot  change 
her  occupation  without  going  through  the  same 
Christian  process  all  over  again.  All  this  wasteful 
jugglery  of  courts  and  costs,  and  the  delay  of  weeks 
and  months,  is  humane  in  the  extreme  ;  for,  "  while 
the  grass  grows,  the  steed  starves."  The  cost  of 
court  and  advertising  is  twenty-five  dollars  ;  and  no 
San  Francisco  lawyer  takes  a  fee  of  less  than  twenty- 
five  dollars.  Under  the  heading  of  "  A  Noble 
Woman,"  "  The  Sari  Francisco  Daily  Call  "  says, 
"  Mrs.  Minna  Hartman  applied  to  the  county  court 
yesterday,  for  permission  to  act  as  sole  trader.  She 
alleges  in  her  petition  that  she  is  the  mother  of  six 
children,  the  eldest  thirteen  years  of  age ;  that  her 
husband  is  in  feeble  health  and  unable  to  labor  ; 
that  he  has  no  capital  with  which  to  establish  him- 
self in  business,  and  is  therefore  unable  to  support 
his  wife  and  family.  She  says  she  has  no  cause  for 
divorce,  iior  does  she  desire  one;  and  that  she  is 


76  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

better  able  to  support  the  children  than  her  husband 
is.  She  asks  to  be  permitted  to  establish  a  trading- 
house  on  a  cash  capital  of  $400,  loaned  to  her  by  her 
husband's  brother." 

Is  not  this  a  lovely  free  country,  where  Minna 
Hartman  cannot  safely  earn  money  without  paying 
tribute  to  a  court  of  justice?  What  business  has 
the  county  court,  or  any  other  court,  to  pry  into  her 
family  history,  publishing  it  to  the  world  ?  or  to  dic- 
tate to  her  whether  she  shall  cultivate  pullets  or 
potatoes,  or  occupy  herself  with  dry-goods  or  drudge- 
ry, for  a  livelihood  ?  This  equitable  court  is  truly 
pons  asinorum. 

A  drunken  reprobate  of  a  protector,  in  Ohio,  sold 
two  cows  which  his  industrious  wife  and  children 
had  earned.  The  sale  of  the  milk  of  these  cows 
largely  supported  the  family  of  little  ones.  Judge 
and  jury  —  for  the  wife  tried  to  protect  her  own 
property  —  knew  that  the  money  obtained  for  the 
sale  went  for  whiskey,  and  that  the  poor  hard-work- 
ing mother's  babes  might  go  hungry  and  cold  on 
account  of  the  legal  robbery;  yet  they  protected 
their  peer,  and  plundered  the  disfranchised  creature 
of  chivalric  protection. 

O  man,  man !  the  flaming  sword  that  hung  at 
Eden's  gate  will  yet  cleave  with  its  terrible  edge 
woman's  oppressor. 

Thousands  of  dollars  jointly  banked  in  a  savings 
institution,  in  the  names  of  husband  and  wife,  can 
be  entirely  drawn  out  by  either  party  during  the 


DISABILITIES   OF    WIVES  AND    WIDOWS.  77 

husband's  life.  But  at  his  death  the  widow  can  only 
draw  out  three  hundred  dollars  of  it.  For  the  want 
of  these  precious  thousands  she  may  lose  all  her 
mortgaged  private  property,  while  the  banked  money 
is  being  slowly  dragged  through  this  green-baize, 
red-tape  probate  mire  of  rotting  hopes  and  the  skele- 
tons of  dead  men's  estates. 

Why  is  not  a  widower  bound  to  this  wheel  within 
a  wheel  of  invisible  motion  ?  Why  is  he  not  chained 
to  this  Promethean  rock,  JUSTICE,  while  the  black 
vulture  Probate  fattens  upon  his  vitals?  Why,  O 
lordly  law-makers,  why  ? 

A  man  in  Oregon  died,  leaving  an  estate  appraised 
at  $2,700,  and  appointed  a  friend  in  San  Francisco 
executor.  This  friend  in  speaking  of  it  said  to  me, 
"  I  lost  three  weeks  time  from  my  business,  in  going 
and  coming,  and  in  court.  I  made  no  charges  what- 
ever; and  all  my  poor  friend's  widow,  who  is  in 
delicate  health,  got  out  of  it,  was  $500,  —  not  quite 
one-fifth.  The  court,  lawyers,  ragtag  and  bobtail, 
got  the  other  four-fifths  and  over.  The  loss  I  person- 
ally sustained,  from  being  absent  from  my  business, 
was  worth  to  me  more  than  the  estate  was  valued 
at." 

A  widow  is  not  allowed  to  testify  in  her  own 
behalf,  although  she  may  be  the  sole  witness  of  value 
in  the  case.  It  seems  that  no  one  is  permitted  to  tes- 
tify for  her  benefit.  In  my  own  case,  my  sister,  at 
whose  house  my  husband  died,  was  put  upon  the 
witness-stand ;  and,  the  moment  she  opened  her  lips 


78  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

to  speak,  the  right  hands  of  the  three  opposing 
lawyers  flew  aloft,  accompanied  by  three  stentorian 
voices,  "  Stop,  stop,  stop  !  that  is  a  question  of  law, 
and  therefore  not  admissible."  And  in  that  man- 
ner the  entire  evidence  was  stifled,  as  mine  had  been 
the  day  before.  The  following  article  was  read  from 
the  abridged  Civil  Code,  to  substantiate  the  position 
taken :  — 

"A  husband  cannot  be  examined  for  or  against  his  wife 
without  her  consent,  nor  a  wife  for  or*  against  her  husband 
without  his  consent ;  nor  can  either,  during  the  marriage  or 
afterwards,  be,  without  the  consent  of  the  other,  examined  as 
to  any  communication  made  by  one  to  the  other  during  the 
marriage  :  but  this  exception  does  not  apply  to  a  civil  action  or 
proceeding  by  one  against  the  other,  nor  to  a  criminal  action 
or  proceeding  for  a  crime  committed  by  one  against  the  other." 

Does  this  act  extend  to  dead  men  and  women  ? 
If  it  does,  then  it  should  be  stricken  from  the  stat- 
ute-books forever,  for  it  is  an  insult  and  an  outrage 
to  common  sense,  let  alone  common  justice. 

Women  should  have  the  same  protection  in  mar- 
riage as  men.  But  what  would  become  of  the  vul- 
tures that  draw  their  sustenance  from  the  Probate 
Court  in  that  case  ?  The  pompous  officials,  profes- 
sional and  loathsome  parasites,  would  have  to  seek 
fresh  fields  and  pastures  new,  —  the  judge,  with  his 
$5000  a  year,  at  four  hours  per  diem  ;  the  army  of 
clerks  (but  never  a  woman)  with  their  fat  salaries, 
wrung  out  of  the  hearts  of  oppressed  mourners; 
the  lawyers,  whose  name  is  Legion;  the  despica- 


DISABILITIES   OF    WIVES  AND    WIDOWS.  79 

ble  leeches,  hanging  by  their  eyelids  to  the  outer 
walls  of  this  hideous  Golgotha,  starting  up  like 
an  unseen  pestilence  wherever  there  is  a  forgot- 
ten heir,  with,  "  If  you  please,  y'r  Honor,  there's  a 
minor  in  the  case,  which  I'll  represent ; "  then  the 
judge  with  a  knowing  smile  answers,  "  Yes,  there  is 
a  minor  heir,"  and  allows  this  sneak-thief  to  write 
down  his  name  as  the  legal  representative  of  the 
minor  heir ;  for  which  laudable  act  he  is  paid,  out 
of  the  rapidly  evaporating  property  of  said  minor 
heir,  fifty  dollars  to  start  with.  Verily,  the  ways  of 
the  Probate  Court  are  mysterious  and  past  finding 
out! 

There  is  a  widow  in  San  Francisco,  who  has  been 
in  probate  for  five  years,  at  a  cost  of  $10,000, 
whose  husband  tried  by  every  device  known  to 
law  to  protect  his  wife  and  children,  in  case  of  his 
death,  from  being  subjected  to  the  depleting  process 
of  the  Probate  Court.  All  appeared  to  be  safe  at  his 
death  ;  but,  lo  and  behold  !  at  the  expiration  of  seven 
or  eight  months  a  child  was  born,  which  at  once  took 
the  position  of  the  "  minor  heir."  And  then  began 
the  probating  in  terrible  earnest,  and  the  poor  tor- 
tured mother  is  still  upon  the  rack.  The  lance 
struck  deep,  for  "  there  was  money  in  it." 

I  met  a  woman  in  the  outer  court  of  the  probate 
prize-tribunal,  a  widow  of  a  prominent  judge.  She 
said  to  me,  "  Seven  years  have  I  been  fighting  this 
godless  abomination,  misnamed  a  court  of  justice. 
I  have  spent  thousands  and  thousands  of  dollars, 


80  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

besides  the  loss  of  time.  My  soul  is  filled  with  the 
gall  and  wormwood  of  all  bitterness  ;  but  I  will  fight- 
it  till  I  die,  and,  like  Macbeth,  die  with  harness  on 
my  back." 

This  woman  looks  twenty  years  older  than  she  did 
seven  years  ago.  She  has  grown  gray  in  the  war- 
fare. Heartless  men  jeer  and  taunt  her  heroic  efforts. 
It  calls  for  heroic  courage  to  combat  with  long-estal>- 
lished  errors.  Men,  scoffing,  say  that  she  has  had 
every  lawyer  in  San  Francisco.  What  of  it  ?  That 
of  itself  should  move  the  stoniest  heart  to  pity. 

A  Mr.  Beal  recently  died  in  Oakland.  He  was 
a  wealthy  man,  and  left  the  palatial  family  residence 
to  the  widow,  with  an  income  of  $600  a  month 
for  her  support,  until  such  time  as  she  should  desire 
to  marry  again.  But,  when  she  ceases  to  be 
Widow  Beal,  she  is  to  be  turned  out  of  doors,  with 
the  stupendous  sum  of  one  dollar.  And  further, 
"  this  curious  instrument  "  —  that's  what  the  dailies 
call  it  —  dictates  that  if  the  children,  who  are  also 
well  provided  for,  should  dare  to  change  their  reli- 
gion, and  forsake  the  gods  of  their  father,  they  are  to 
be  sent  adrift  with  a  like  sum,  —  one  dollar.  What 
kind  of  absolutism  is  this  to  wield  in  a  land  full  of 
spread-eagle  freedom,  equality,  and  justice  ? 

There  are  various  kinds  of  widows  in  this  Golden 
State,  — peaceful  and  refractory,  mild  and  belligerent. 
The  former  are  full  of  self-abnegation  and  self-abase- 
ment. They  would  not  break  a  will  to  establish 
their  rights,  and  secure  what  belonged  to  them  by 


DISABILITIES  OF   WIVES  AND    WIDOWS.  81 

law,  because  the  husband  had  stolen  from  them  for 
memorial  aggrandizement.  Oh,  no  !  They  wouldn't 
do  such  a  naughty  thing  ! 

This  is  the  style  of  wives  and  widows  that  men 
dote  on.  As  wives,  they  always  meet  a  dissolute  and 
depraved  husband  with  faces  wreathed  in  winning 
smiles;  and  words  of  honeyed  sweetness  fall  from 
their  lips,  while  the  heart  is  full  of  irrecoverable 
stabs,  and  bleeding  at  every  pore,  and  the  head  is  a 
fountain  of  tears.  I  am  familiar  with  the  history  of 
one  such.  She  and  her  lord  came  to  California  when 
it  was  a  howling  wilderness  of  sand,  lions,  and  wild- 
cats, and  settled  on  a  ranche.  There  she  bore  him 
six  children,  doing  all  her  own  work  indoors,  and  at 
harvest-time  assisting  in  the  fields.  Thus  they  lived 
away  their  youth  and  early  maturity.  One  day  the 
messenger  called  for  the  husband  to  cross  to  the  other 
side.  When  they  thought  him  safely  over,  the  will 
was  opened,  and  divulged  the  fact  that  he  was  a  far- 
seeing  humanitarian  ;  for  he  had  willed  nearly  all  the 
joint  property  to  benevolent  institutions,  and  left  his 
wife  only  five  thousand  dollars. 

She  could  break  the  wiU ;  but,  as  I  have  said,  she 
preferred  to  abnegate  rather  than  go  contrary  to  the 
wishes  of  her  august  and  ancient  Adonis.  The  estate 
was  valued  at  several  hundred  thousand  dollars  ;  but 
the  peaceful  widow  ekes  out  a  meagre  existence  on 
the  income  of  $5000,  because  she  would  scorn,  at 
her  time  of  life,  to  be  anathematized  by  all  old-time 
husbands  and  old-time  husband-abiding  wives,  as 
a  woman's-righter,  crusader,  or  any  kind  of  a  rebel. 


82  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

I  have  personally  lost  over  $10,000  in  my  two 
years'  probating  ;  that  is,  if  I  count  my  time  of  any 
value,  which  I  certainly  do,  let  alone  the  wear  and 
tear  of  clothing,  and  that  which  is  priceless  above 
all  wealth,  health  and  good  feelings ;  while  the  com- 
munity estate  is  turned  out  of  the  probate  disin- 
tegration-mill, in  the  usual  form,  —  insolvent. 

Mr.  Pringle  said  to  me,  in  that  pleasing  hesitancy 
of  voice  peculiar  to  him,  one  day  when  we  were 
gathered  in  the  court-room,  — 

"  Mrs.  Stow,  you  must  be  a  very  unhappy  woman : 
you  seem  to  have  no  faith  in  men  or  law."  I  re- 
plied, "  I  have  such  strong  reasons  to  have  faith  in 
both,  that  it  is  rather  surprising  that  I  complain. 
Just  men,  and  just  laws  made  by  just  men,  have 
taken  every  thing  of  worldly  goods  which  were  the 
joint  property  of  me  and  mine ;  they  hold  me  here 
in  durance  vile  when  I  wish  to  be  elsewhere.  My 
precious  time,  my  precious  substance,  and  my  pre- 
cious good  feelings,  are  trailed  through  this  Barbary 
coast  court  day  after  day.  Each  day  my  substance 
becomes  smaller  by  degrees  and  beautifully  1 
each  day  my  wrath  and  indignation  augments  and 
blazes  with  a  fiercer,  hotter  glow  ;  and  }^ou  wonder 
why  I  am  not  amiable  and  altogether  lovely  (which 
would  be  a  physical  impossibility)  under  such  cir- 
cumstances. You  will  have  to  be  a  widow,  flayed 
alive,  ere  you  can  appreciate  the  situation,  ere  you 
can  taste  the  gall  and  sip  the  wormwood." 

Edward  opened  his  mouth  to  speak ;  but  just  at 


DISABILITIES  OF   WIVES  AND    WIDOWS.  83 

that  moment  the  judge  came  softly  out  of  his  den, 
like  a  tiger-cat,  and  with  a  wary  look  and  supple 
step  mounted  the  official  platform,  and  took  his 
official  cushioned  seat,  —  called  a  bench,  —  which 
official  cushion  is  stuffed  with  male  votes.  If  one 
feminine  vote  helped  to  soften  that  padded  chair, 
upholstered  with  crimson  velvet,  the  judge  would 
not  be  so  fearfully  exact  with  widows. 

Women  are  realizing  daily  how  powerless  is  the 
hand  that  holds  no  ballot.  The  sixteen  thousand 
women  of  Chicago,  who  petitioned  the  mayor  and 
common  council  to  close  the  rum-holes  on  Sunday, 
are  a  standing  army  of  evidence  to  this  fact.  They 
were  assailed  upon  the  street  by  a  mob  of  voters^ 
with  their  mouths  filled  with  obscenity  and  profan- 
ity that  was  enough  to  make  Billingsgate  shudder. 
Mayor  Colvin  is  an  honest  man,  for  he  spoke  the 
truth  to  those  sixteen  thousand  disfranchised  peti- 
tioners. Said  he,  "Ladies,  you  have  no  power  to 
help  to  lift  me  into  office  again.  I  was  elected  with 
this  one  thing  expressly  in  view ;  and  I  shall  obey 
the  behests  of  my  constituency,  and  sign  that  ordi- 
nance to-morrow  morning,  though  a  million  women 
were  appealing  to  me."  Probate  judges  are  as 
outspoken  in  deed,  if  not  in  word. 

Again  :  "  A  guardian  of  a  child  born,  or  likely  to 
be  born,  may  be  appointed  by  will  or  by  deed,  to 
take  effect  upon  the  death  of  the  parent  appointing." 
This  monstrous  law  has  its  iron  grip  within  the  body 
of  the  mother,  upon  the  babe  beneath  her  heart. 


84  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

Could  there  be  a  more  frightful  barbarity  than  this  ? 
It  is  not  surprising,  with  such  savage  laws,  that  so 
many  men  are  lower  than  the  brutes,  or  that  there 
are  so  many  wives  murdered  by  husbands. 

And  these  are  the  boasted  laws  of  California,  so 

just ! 

"  Go,  ring  the  bells,  and  fire  the  guns, 

And  fling  the  starry  banner  out; 
Shout  *  Freedom ! '  till  your  lisping  ones 
Give  back  their  cradle  shout." 

Yet  again :  "  The  husband,  with  his  last  audible 
breath,  may  place  an  executor  over  the  community 
property,"  who  may  be  the  wife's  bitterest  enemy, 
and  who  may  have  obtained — during  the  last  sick- 
ness—  a  perfect  psychological  power  and  control 
over  the  dying  man.  The  wife  is  thus  robbed  of  the 
money  paid  for  the  administration  (which  money  is 
most  wisely  and  humanely  paid  before  the  family 
allowance),  and  it  flows  into  the  pockets  of  her  foe  ; 
and  the  just  laws  protect  this  creature  in  his  ill-gotten 
power.  He  may  act  without  bonds  ;  and  there  is  no 
possible  way  to  know  whether  he  is  dealing  honestly 
with  his  enemy  the  widow,  or  not.  The  court  sup- 
poses that  a  man  in  the  throes  of  death  knows  what 
he  is  doing,  and  that  he  would  not  appoint  a  dishon- 
est person  to  sit  in  state  over  the  financial  affairs  of 
the  widow.  Men  are  so  very  honest  nowadaj^s  that 
no  one  ought  to  question  such  childlike  faith  in  an 
executor.  Still  the  widow  may  feel  that  her  own 
judgment  might  satisfy  her  better  than  the  question- 
able judgment  of  an  implacable  foe. 


DISABILITIES  OF   WIVES  AND    WIDOWS.  85 

Is  it  just  or  right  that  a  husband  should  be  armed 
with  such  an  unbalanced  panoply  of  power  over  the 
joint  estate  which  has  been  earned  together?  By 
the  wife's  efforts  and  economy  she  has,  most  likely, 
contributed  her  half  toward  the  family  estate. 
Which  leads  the  hardest  and  most  dangerous  life, 
the  woman  who  runs  the  intricate  machinery  of  the 
household,  bears  the  children,  and  does  battle  with 
crude,  uninstructed  servants,  or  the  man  down  town 
with  his  educated  clerks  or  posse  of  trained  work- 
men ?  Men  need  but  to  exchange  places  with 
women,  for  ever  so  short  a  time,  to  fully  realize  that 
the  larger  number  of  them  bear  half  life's  burdens, 
without  the  additional  weight  of  cruel  and  oppressive 
laws.  It  is  a  criminal  law  that  creates  a  power 
which  is  capable  of  placing  either  the  husband  or 
the  wife  at  the  mercy  of  a  foe,  after  the  death  of  the 
other.  I  hold  that  an  enemy  is  bound,  in  all  reason, 
to  be  false  to  his  trust.  He  looks  out  for  his  own 
profit,  not  the  foe's. 

"  Mankind  is  ever  weak,  and  little  to  be  trusted: 

If  self  the  wavering  balance  strike,  it's  rarely  right  adjusted." 

If  it  is  right  for  a  man  to  put  an  executor  over  an 
estate  at  his  death,  then  it  is  just  as  right  that  a 
woman  should  have  and  exercise  the  same  preroga- 
tive. She  would  be  just  as  wise  as  he,  at  the  last 
moment.  She  should  be  permitted  to  choose  a  guar- 
dian for  her  children,  as  well. 

Sarah  Siddons  —  the  queen  of  tragedy  — said  to 


86  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

her  inferior  husband,  whom  her  talents  supported, 
and  who  prodigally  squandered  her  money  in  foolish 
speculations,  "  Be  the  master  of  all  while  God  per- 
mits ;  in  case  of  your  death  only  let  me  be  put  out 
of  the  power  of  any  person  living." 

I  think  the  same  prayer  may  be  safely  reiterated 
by  every  wife  to-day.  Here  was  a  poor  stick  of  a 
man,  an  invalid,  and  a  great  expense  upon  his  wife's 
time  and  purse,  besides  his  passion  for  speculation, 
wherein  he  lost  large  sums  of  her  hard-earned  money ; 
and  yet  he  was  the  lord  and  master,  —  the  supreme 
dictator  of  the  noble  woman  he  called  wife. 

The  old  Romans  used  to  put  their  wives  to  death 
if  they  drank  wine.  The  same  tyrannical  spirit  is 
extant  in  this  age.  It  is  true  that  women  are  per- 
mitted to  drink  wine,  but  they  are  denied  all  voice 
in  the  government.  I  would  rather  help  to  make  the 
laws  by  voting  honesty  into  office,  and  putting  cor- 
ruption out,  than  to  drink  wine,  if  I  am  to  be  denied 
either  privilege.  A  husband  can  ill-treat  the  wife  in 
such  a  manner  that  to  remain  under  the  same  roof  is 
daily  suicide ;  and,  to  escape  this  lingering  death  of 
torture  and  persecution,  she  flees  for  shelter  and  pro- 
tection elsewhere.  The  just  law,  in  this  case,  not 
only  gives  the  legal  brute,  the  husband,  the  entire 
property,  but  the  custody  of  the  children  also,  unless 
she  can  bring  indisputable  proof  of  his  cruelty  ;  and 
that  she  is  not  always  able  to  do,  for  a  wife  often 
suffers  from  nameless  wrongs  inflicted  upon  her  by  a 
husband  who,  to  all  appearance,  is  among  the  best 
of  men  and  a  worthy  citizen. 


DISABILITIES   OF    WIVES  AND    WIDOWS. 


87 


Without  proof  she  can  get  no  pay  for  her  many 
years  of  hard  labor  ;  and,  as  though  this  were  not  inhu- 
man enough,  the  fiend  of  a  husband  publishes  to  the 
world  that  he  will  not  pay  for  her  support.  He  pay 
for  her  support !  He  is  a  law-protected  thief,  as 
well  as  an  inhuman  tyrant,  fit  for  nothing  but  a 
chain-gang,  who  has  stolen  her  youth,  her  children, 
her  earnings,  and  branded  her  good  name  by  posting 
her  through  the  press  of  the  country. 

Oh,  shame  !  shame  ! !  shame  !  I  ! 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  LAW  LIBRARY. 
Quo  Jure. 

THE  California  Civil  Code  and  Belknap's  Probate 
Digest  had  been  my  inseparable  companions  for 
weeks,  when  one  day,  after  the  perfume  and  flame 
of  the  condensed  extract  of  masculine  wisdom  had 
somewhat  palled  upon  the  taste,  a  bold  thought  pos- 
sessed me.  I  would  steal  into  the  camp  of  the 
enemy,  —  the  Law  Library,  —  and  discover  that 
"  swan's  nest  by  the  river,"  Schouler's  "  Domestic 
Relations." 

With  a  firm  step  I  ascended  the  stairs,  resolutely 
paced  the  hall,  boldly  pushed  open  the  door.  No 
lawyer  fainted ;  and  the  polite  librarian  instantly 
came  forward,  and  seated  me  at  the  judge's  table,  and 
placed  the  open  "  Domestic  Relations  "  before  me, 
with  a  hard-nibbed  pen,  and  a  cruse  of  ink  the  color 
of  Sheridan's  trusty  steed. 

How  courageous  I  felt  as  I  sat  there  taking  notes, 
—  galvanized  corpses  of  past  ages,  —  and  heard  the 
suppressed  and  terrified  whisperings  and  mutterings 
(I  was  near  the  door)  as  some  timid  foe  peered 


THE  LAW  LIBRARY.  89 

through  the  half-open  portal,  but  dared  not  enter ! 
Hearing  the  deep  orotund  of  one  of  San  Francisco's 
shining  bar-lights,  I  coolly  faced  about  in  the  judge's 
armed  chair,  and  begged  him — the  rosy  lawyer  —  to 
advise  me  in  regard  to  some  perplexing  legal  diffi- 
culty. He  expressed  no  surprise  at  seeing  me  there, 
and  gave  the  desired  information  gratuitously,  which 
showed  a  heart  commensurate  with  his  voice  and 
fame. 

He  further  informed  me  that  Schouler's  "  Domes- 
tic Relations  "  were  old  relations,  and  therefore  not 
wholly  to  be  trusted.  In  other  words,  they  were  as 
variable  in  their  application  nowadays  as  the  chan- 
ging whims  of  grand-jurymen ;  that  the  Supreme 
Court  might  give  one  version  as  law  and  gospel  to- 
day, and  another  to-morrow,  &c.  Then  I  lost  con- 
fidence in  those  "  Domestic  Relations,"  and  closed 
my  book,  and  gathered  up  my  notes  and  wraps ;  and 
that  seat  at  the  judge's  table  and  that  Law  Library 
have  known  me  no  more  since  that  daring  and  mem- 
orable day  —  greatly  to  the  peace  and  joy  of  the  cau- 
tious and  uncertain  enemies.  Before  I  had  seen  the 
probate  judge,  I  was  warned  by  an  anxious  lawyer, 
that  I  must  be  very  careful  not  to  offend  his  Honor 
by  look  or  word  ;  for,  if  I  did,  it  would  go  hard  with 
me.  In  other  words,  he  was  to  be  handled  with 
gloves  on,  or  with  the  tongs.  However,  like  the 
woman  who  dared,  if  I  might  not  aspire  to  speak  to 
him,  there  would  certainly  be  no  harm  in  writing 
him  a  notes  setting  forth  my  grievances  and  necessi 


90  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

ties ;  and  I  did.  But  woe  was  me !  the  judge 
handed  that  private  missive  to  my  lawyer ;  and  my 
lawyer  immediately  passed  it  to  the  warning  lawyer, 
who  came  to  me  (I  was  in  court)  with  a  face  —  I 
won't  say  as  long  as  a  broom-handle,  for  I  don't 
mean  to  exaggerate :  the  truth  is  bad  enough  — 
but  it  must  have  elongated  an  inch;  and  said  he 
to  me,  in  a  sepulchral  whisper,  "  Didn't  you  know 
better  than  to  write  to  the  judge?  If  you  were  a 
man,  you  would  be  sent  up  for  sixty  days  for  con- 
tempt." How  I  hugged  myself,  and  rejoiced  that  I 
was  not  a  man  to  be  sent  up !  But  then,  if  I  had 
been  sent  up  for  two  months,  my  board  would  have 
been  thrown  in,  and  that  was  an  important  item  just 
then.  Perhaps,  after  all,  it  was  better  to  have  been 
a  man,  even  under  the  questionable  conditions  of 
being  sent  up. 

Why  is  it  contemptible  to  write  to  a  probate  judge  ? 
I  have,  nothing  daunted,  written  him  since,  or  the 
court  rather,  and  thereby  caused  much  merriment. 
When  I  was  sick  unto  death,  I  wrote  a  note  ad- 
dressed to  the  Probate  Court,  and  asked  it  to  "  show 
cause  "  why  my  allowance  was  withheld  from  me, 
stating  that  I  was  very  ill,  and  in  great  need  of 
money ;  and  begged  that  honorable  body  the  court 
to  issue  an  order  for  the  payment  of  the  monthly 
allowance  that  the  judge  had  awarded  me. 

Now,  over  this  "  show-cause  business,"  I  learned 
by  the  warning  lawyer  that  he  and  some  brother 
lawyers,  joined  by  the  judge,  laughed  themselves 


THE  LAW  LIBRARY.  91 

nearly  sick  in  the  court-room.  A  grand  cause  for 
merriment,  surely !  Most  worthy  the  time,  place, 
and  circumstance!  Very  funny!  —  a  widow  of  a 
prominent  citizen,  in  sickness,  begging  for  enough  of 
her  own  substance  to  buy  medicine  and  bread,  and 
pay  for  a  nurse ;  and  this,  too,  money  previously 
granted  for  her  support.  A  most  laughable  thing  ! 
But  the  cream  of  the  joke,  however,  was  that  there 
was  no  further  notice  taken  of  m}T  plea.  What  mat- 
tered it  to  them,  after  their  laugh,  whether  I  died  of 
hunger  or  the  want  of  sick-room  care,  or  got  well 
to  pester  them  further  with  my  unprovided  needs  ? 

The  executor's  lawyer  said  to  me,  in  the  office  of 
the  non-executive  executor,  "  Mrs.  Stow,  you  seem 
to  blame  me  and  the  creditors  because  we  cannot  de- 
part from  the  strict  letter  of  the  law.  If  you  were 
actually  starving,  we  couldn't  help  it.  I  must  take 
away  your  allowance  to  cancel  this  letter  of  credit  if 
I  can.  This  is  law.  It  may  seem  hard  to  you,  but 
I  am  compelled  to  do  my  whole  duty  in  my  profes- 
sion: it  matters  not  whom  it  hurts.  You  must 
blame  the  law,  and  not  me.  Besides,  we  don't  like 
your  calling  us  Mr.  Stow's  Caesar  friends.  That, 
you  know,  casts  opprobrium  upon  our  regard  for 
him." 

"True  friendship  extends  beyond  the  grave,"  I 
made  reply,  "  and  it  rarely  bears  upon  its  branches 
the  bitter  fruit  of  persecution.  For  over  three 
months  you  withheld  from  me  my  hundred  shares  of 
tobacco  stock,  my  Christmas  present  from  m^  bus- 


92  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

band.  Was  that  honoring  the  memory  of  a  deaa 
friend  ? 

"  You  say  that  he  had  no  right  to  make  his  wife  a 
Christmas  gift  when  he  was  in  debt ;  that  he  was 
not  a  free  agent.  Yet  he  owed  me  the  value  of  that 
stock,  many  times  repeated,  for  household  services. 
I  claim  that  a  wife,  housekeeper,  and  sick-nurse, 
earns  some  money  that  a  husband  is  bound  in  all 
honor,  if  not  by  law,  to  respect,  and  that  he  should 
pay  her  for  such  services.  The  law  protects  the 
servant's  wages,  but  not  the  wife's.  Besides,  this 
stock  never  cost  Mr.  Stow  a  farthing.  It  was  given 
to  him  for  the  use  of  his  name,  as  you  well  know, 
when  the  company  was  organized." 

What  kind  of  a  monopoly  is  this  one  per  cent, 
which  dictates  to  a  husband  whether  his  wife  shall 
have  any  payment  for  services  or  not,  or  a  present 
at  Christmas  ?  A  monopoty  of  manhood  is  worse 
than  serfdom.  This  frightful  curse  of  manhood- 
monopoly  is  sapping  the  foundations  of  our  nation 
to-day.  Men  are  bought  and  sold  like  human  chat- 
tels in  the  market-place,  like  beasts  in  the  shambles. 
Here  and  there  sit  human  vampires,  with  their  subtle 
meshes  woven  so  closely  around  their  victims,  that 
to  stir  without  their  permission  is  certain  financial 
death.  0  Freedom  !  where  art  thou  fled  ?  0  Liberty  ! 
where  is  thy  abiding-place  ? 

The  traffic  and  monopoly  of  manhood  extends 
from  the  highest  to  the  lowest  offices  of  the  States 
and  nation.  Men  to  whom  the  people  have  com- 


THE  LAW  LIBRARY.  93 

mitted  the  national  interest,  and  who  conduct  the 
national  affairs,  are  not  freemen.  This  plague-spot 
of  corruption  permeates  even  to  the  public-school 
department,  until  what  looks  fair  may  be  but  seem- 
ing. The  whole  system  is  rotten  afc  the  core,  and 
festering  upon  the  surface.  Right  is  down,  with 
dust  and  blood  upon  its  brow,  while  Wrong  runs 
rampant  up  and  down  the  land. 

"  Woe,  a  thousand  times  woe,  to  mankind,  should 
there  be  no  force  on  earth  to  maintain  the  laws  of 
justice  and  humanity !  Woe  to  freedom,  if  every 
despot  of  the  world  may  dare  to  trample  down  the 
laws  of  humanity,"  desecrating  and  pillaging  the 
hearthstone  under  the  guise  of  legality,  unhousing 
and  prostituting  widows  and  orphans  I 

Just  here  I  would  say  to  every  woman  who  is 
earning  money,  and  about  to  be  married,  that  she 
had  better  come  to  some  business  understanding  with 
her  dear  Charles  Augustus,  or  she  will  find,  too  late, 
that  she  is  working  —  after  marriage  —  like  an  ap- 
prentice, for  board  and  clothes,  and  that  the  money 
for  clothes  comes  like  pulling  molar  teeth. 

That  old  fossilized  idea  holds  its  place  in  men's 
minds  with  a  tenacity  worthy  a  better  cause,  that 
wives  earn  no  money.  A  housekeeper  is  paid  good 
wages,  while  a  woman  in  that  capacity,  fulfilling  the 
duties  of  wife  and  mother,  earns  nothing,  —  is  sup- 
ported by  the  husband.  What  an  absurdity  I  If  a 
woman  earns  nothing  fulfilling  the  duties  of  wife, 
then  all  women  had 'best  look  to  it  in  the  future, 


94  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

so  they  may  not  take  a  hasty  leap  in  the  darkness, 
to  have  time  to  repent  at  leisure  in  the  sad  light  of 
dawning  truth. 

If  husbands  were  more  generous  with  their  wives 
in  money-matters,  there  would  not  be  so  many  desti- 
tute widows  and  orphans  in  the  world,  whose  only 
avenue  of  escape  from  starvation  lay  through  the 
ever-open  door  of  prostitution.  Women,  as  a  general 
thing,  are  far  more  conservative  in  money-matters 
than  men.  Whenever  money  comes  hard  it  is  spent 
with  thoughtful  care.  The  money  of  most  wives 
comes  very  hard. 

The  Probate  Court  is  a  high-school  of  prostitution. 
It  furnishes  the  widow  and  orphans  support  for  one 
year  only,  if  by  any  possibility  it  can  proclaim  an 
anticipated  insolvent  estate  (with  it  all  estates  are 
insolvent  until  they  are  proven  otherwise),  mean- 
while holding  it  for  years  undistributed,  thereby 
letting  the  interest  on  debts  and  its  own  pay  absorb 
every  thing,  while  the  widow  and  orphans  work,  if 
they  can  get  employment,  beg,  starve,  or  prostitute 
themselves,  for  a  livelihood.  And  this  is  justice ! 

When  the  estate  is  intestate,  should  there  be  an 
all-powerful  creditor  who  objected  to  the  widow 
serving  as  executrix,  the  court  respects  his  wishes ; 
and  she  is  thus  robbed  of  the  price  paid  for  the 
administration  of  her  own  substance.  And  this  is 
justice  ! 

Women  have  endured  this  state  of  things  unre- 
piningly,  because  they  have  dwelt  in  a  perpetual 


THE  LAW  LIBRARY.    ,  95 

childhood.  Children  cling  to  leading-strings  as  a 
necessity,  and  feel  it  a  benefit  to  be  led.  Out  of  the 
childlike  attachment  for  the  fancied  protection  of 
man,  the  duty  of  blind  obedience  was  framed  by  the 
cruel  hand  of  oppressors.  The  scene  is  slowly  chan- 
ging. Women  are  becoming,  day  by  day,  conscious 
of  their  disabilities,  and  the  heavy  burdens  laid  upon 
them  by  their  long-time  protectors.  They  would  be 
free.  The  spirit  of  freedom  moves  through  the 
air,  and  ought  to  rouse  every  manacled  soul  to 
action. 

In  the  great  struggle  between  liberty,  human 
rights,  and  male  absolutism,  they  will  be  compelled 
to  act  an  heroic  part.  When  the  struggle  is  about 
principle,  indifference  and  inactivity  is  suicide.  He 
who  is  not  for  freedom  is  against  freedom.  There 
is  no  third  choice.  Every  one  who  pleads  for  liberty 
for  women  pleads  for  humanity;  and  every  blow 
struck  for  liberty  is  struck  for  humanity.  Without 
justice  and  freedom,  life  is  only  a  mockery;  and  peace 
purchased  by  servile  submission  to  tyranny,  a  delu- 
sion and  a  burden. 

There  is  a  just  God  in  heaven,  and  there  will  yet 
be  justice  on  earth.  The  day  of  retribution  begins 
to  dawn ;  its  shafts  of  light  pierce  the  darkness 
which  has  so  long  hung  like  a  pall  over  the  path  of 
woman.  She  is  beginning  to  walk  by  her  own  light ; 
or,  rather,  the  divine  light,  which  radiates  above 
every  human  pathway  if  we  will  but  see  it,  instead 
of  ever  groping  our  way  by  a  borrowed  or  reflected 


96 


PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 


light.  There  is  nothing  more  intimately  associated 
with  the  idea  of  freedom  than  the  right  of  every 
mind  to  search  for  truth  in  its  own  way,  and  by  its 
own  individual  light,  —  the  right  of  private  judg- 
ment. 


CHAPTER  X. 

PROTECTION  AND  SUBORDINATION. 

Ex  ungue  leonem. 

IT  is  claimed  that  most  women  have  no  intellect, 
or  ability  for  self-support  or  self-government.  If 
this  be  true,  then  why  are  men  so  alarmed  at  their 
using  what  little  they  have?  The  soul  grows  by 
what  it  feeds  upon,  which  either  broadens  or  narrows 
the  mental  calibre.  Women  should  have  every  op- 
portunity to  expand  their  views  by  direct  contact 
with  the  discipline  of  life.  I  would  say  to  men, 
"  Open  wide  the  doors  that  have  so  long  debarred 
women  from  a  seat  by  your  side.  Take  nothing  for 
granted  without  a  fair  trial.  The  fountain  will  not 
rise  higher  than  its  source."  Macaulay  said  in  the 
English  Parliament,  "  Throw  open  the  doors  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  throw  open  the  ranks  of  the  im- 
perial army,  before  you  deny  eloquence  to  the  coun- 
trymen of  Isaiah,  or  valor  to  the  descendants  of  the 
Maccabees." 

If  we  are  weak,  why  add  to  our  misfortune 
by  protective  and  oppressive  laws?  Take  away 
your  protection,  —  we  have  had  enough  and  too 

97 


98  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

much  of  it,  —  and  give  us  the  other  extreme  for 
variety. 

Nations  have  been  protected,  and  have  suffered 
just  as  women  are  suffering  to-day,  in  consequence 
thereof. 

Protection  and  subordination  are  synonj^mons 
terms. 

Literature  in  England,  in  former  times,  enjoyed 
the  protection  and  encouragement  of  the  patrician 
classes ;  and  authors  became  the  servile  slaves  of  the 
crown  and  aristocracy.  They  begged  for  the  patron- 
age of  the  great  as  a  tramp  begs  for  a  crust  of  bread, 
or  as  woman  has  plead  for  justice  at  the  hands  of 
man  since  time  began.  A  protective  policy  is  based 
upon  ignoble  dependence  and  subordination,  and  not 
upon  the  principles  of  freedom  and  equality. 

During  the  fifty  years  that  Louis  XIV.  wielded  the 
sceptre  in  France,  every  man  of  letters  became  a 
vassal  of  the  crown.  Every  book  was  written  with 
a  view  to  the  royal  favor  ;  and  to  obtain  the  patron- 
age of  the  king  was  considered  the  most  decisive 
proof  of  intellectual  eminence.  Le  Vassor  bitterly 
said  of  that  time,  "  The  French  are  so  accustomed 
to  slavery  that  they  do  not  feel  the  pressure  of  their 
chains."  Most  women  have  been  accustomed  to 
political  slavery  so  long  that  they  do  not  feel  the 
pressure  of  their  chains. 

Religious  protection  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV. 
cost  France  half  a  million  of  her  most  industrious 
inhabitants,  who  fled  to  different  countries  to  escape 


PROTECTION  AND  SUBORDINATION.  99 

death.  Every  vestige  of  liberty  was  destroyed,  and 
a  despotic  system  of  protection  and  persecution  del- 
uged the  fair  land  in  blood.  Religious  protection 
was  forced  upon  them  just  'as  special  legal  protection 
is  forced  upon  women  in  the  nineteenth  century 
after  they  have  outgrown  it.  The  Church  protected, 
and  prohibited,  men  from  taking  the  trouble  to  think 
for  themselves.  They  were  burnt  at  the  stake,  and 
drawn  and  quartered,  if  they  dared  to  have  a  mind 
of  their  own. 

The  church  policy  and  the  feudal  system  were 
alike  degrading.  Men  looked  up  to  the  Church  or 
to  the  nobles.  Thus  aristocracy  had  its  birth  in  feu- 
dalism, which  gradually  supplanted  the  Church  in 
power,  in  the  older  nations  ;  but  in  this  more  youth- 
ful nation  we  have  a  metallic  or  moneyed  aristoc- 
racy, and  an  aristocracy  of  sex,  which  is  world-wide 
with  but  one  exception,  and  that  of  blood.  Nothing 
but  high  birth  can  remove  the  stigma  of  sex.  Roy- 
alty and  patrician  blood  pull  down  the  bars  that  ex- 
clude sex  ;  but  to  plebeian  blood  and  simple  worth 
they  yield  not. 

Marks  of  favor  during  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV., 
both  in  England  and  in  France,  were  but  the  badges 
of  servitude.  The  recipients  were  no  longer  free 
agents :  they  were  only  the  pliant  tools  of  the  Protect- 
ors — just  as  women  have  always  been  the  pliant  tools 
and  creeping- vines  to  their  male  protectors.  The  most 
noble  and  satisfactory  protection  that  any  one  can 
have  is  self-protection.  That  is  God-given  to  all  the 


100  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

animal  creation,  if  they  are  permitted  and  taught 
how  to  exercise  it.  "  Whoever  begins  the  world  for 
himself  by  losing  his  independence,  will  end  by  los- 
ing his  energy,"  is  a  most  truthful  maxim. 

King  George  exercised  his  protective  policy  on  his 
New  World  colonies,  a  hundred  years  ago ;  but  the 
colonists  had  no  more  taste  for  protection  then  than 
some  of  their  grand-daughters  and  great-grand-daugh- 
ters have  to-day.  They  —  the  colonists  —  didn't 
like  it,  and  made  a  somewhat  palpable  demonstration 
of  their  dislike ;  just  as  women  are  now  doing,  but 
with  different  weapons.  The  sword,  hand,  and  brain 
bring  quicker  results  than  the  pen,  hand,  and  brain  ; 
but  no  more  certain,  as  the  near  future  will  prove,  I 
trust,  in  the  emancipation  of  all  women  from  politi- 
cal bondage.  Taxation  without  representation  did 
not  succeed  in  those  days,  any  more  than  it  will  suc- 
ceed in  the  good  time  coming. 

One  of  England's  greatest  historians  speaks  of 
King  George's  trying  to  tax  the  colonists  who  had 
no  voice  in  the  House  of  Parliament,  as  "  a  scheme 
of  public  robbery,  which  the  independent  spirit  of 
the  colonists  manfully  resisted.  And,  in  order  to 
enforce  the  monstrous  claim  of  taxing  a  people  with- 
out their  consent,  open  war  was  declared."  Women 
are  taxed  just  as  wrongfully  to-day.  The  male  de- 
scendants of  those  stubborn  old  rebels  have  wielded 
King  George's  sceptre  over  women  ever  since  the 
glorious  victory.  Like  the  man  in  Biblical  history, 
as  soon  as  his  own  debt  was  forgiven,  he  went  straight 


PROTECTION  AND  SUBORDINATION.  101 

and  laid  violent  hands  upon  one,  for  like  offence,  in- 
ferior to  himself  in  power. 

The  English  historian  further  remarks,  "  This 
brave  people,  provoked  by  the  injustice  of  the  Eng- 
lish government,  rose  in  arms,  turned  on  their  op- 
pressors, and,  after  a  desperate  struggle,  gloriously 
obtained  their  independence.  In  1776  the  Ameri- 
cans laid  before  Europe  that  noble  Declaration,  which 
ought  to  be  hung  up  in  the  nursery  of  every  king, 
and  blazoned  on  the  porch  of  every  royal  palace.  In 
words,  the  memory  of  which  can  never  die,  they 
declared  that  the  object  of  the  institution  of  govern- 
ment is  to  secure  the  rights  of  the  people ;  that  from 
the  people  alone  it  derives  its  power." 

A  century  ago  men  felt  the  need  of  being  free, 
and  rebelled  against  intolerant  arrogance  and  usur- 
pation. The  same  feelings  are  slowly  but  surely 
rousing  in  the  breasts  of  the  wives  and  mothers  who 
have  waited  a  hundred  years  for  their  wrongs  to  be 
redressed.  Supplications  and  prayers  have  proved 
abortive.  Now  they  demand  their  rights  with  a 
dauntless  eye  and  firm  lip.  They  have  armed  them- 
selves with  the  panoply  of  true  faith,  and  have 
stepped  forth  with  a  challenge  to  men,  to  "  show 
cause  "  why  their  demands  are  not  fully  and  speedily 
granted. 

Call  it  rebellion  if  you  will.  They  who  sow  in- 
justice must  reap  rebellion.  There  have  been  vari- 
ous kinds  of  rebellion  among  men  of  all  nations, 
classes,  and  creeds,  and  all  fought  out  .at  the  bay- 


102  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

onet's  point  and  the  cannon's  mouth  ;  but  this  femi- 
nine hearthstone  rebellion  shall  be  the  greatest  of 
them  all,  —  a  sex  rebellion  which  embraces  all  Chris- 
tendom, and  upon  whose  banner  shall  be  embossed 
the  emblems  of  all  nations. 

Webster  said,  in  one  of  his  great  speeches, 
"  Government  owes  high  and  solemn  duties  to  every 
citizen  of  the  country.  It  is  bound  to  protect  him," 
not  her,  "  in  his  most  important  rights  and  interests." 
Women  are  not  citizens :  therefore  they  are  not  pro- 
tected. "But  human  reason — that  divine  spark 
which  even  the  most  corrupt  society  is  unable  to 
extinguish  —  is  beginning  to  display  its  power,  and 
disperse  the  mists  in  which  it  has  been  so  long  en- 
shrouded," as  regards  one-half  of  mankind.  Women 
are  beginning  to  take  in  the  entire  situation  with 
wide-open  eyes.  They  have  commenced  to  think 
and  act  for  themselves.  They  are  weary  of  proxy 
and  verbiage,  and  are  groping  their  way  in  untried 
paths,  in  search  of  the  temple  of  honor  and  justice, 
which  ought  to  be  seated  on  an  eminence.  "  If  jus- 
tice itself  were  the  great  standing  policy  of  the  civil- 
ized world,  as  it  is  claimed  to  be,  there  would  be  no 
marked  departure  from  it,  under  any  circumstances  ; 
for  that  lies  under  the  supposition  of  being  no  policy 
at  all." 

Lucy  Stone,  in  speaking  of  the  centennial  celebra- 
tion at  Concord  and  Lexington,  says,  "  The  occasion 
which  comes  c  nly  once  in  a  century,  and  which,  by 
every  sacred  memory,  should  have  summoned  men 


PROTECTION  AND  SUBORDINATION.  103 

far  and  near  to  carry  out  and  settle  on  peaceful 
fields  the  strife  begun  in  blood  and  war,  has  passed. 
All  that  was  worthy  and  beautiful  and  true  —  and 
there  was  much  that  was  so  —  is  history  now.  But 
so,  too,  is  the  fact  that  half  the  people  are  still  taxed 
without  representation,  and  governed  without  their 
consent,  and  no  one  remembered  to  mention  it. 

*  Earth,  render  back  from  out  thy  breast 
A  remnant  of  our  Spartan  dead  1 
Of  the  three  hundred,  grant  but  three, 
To  make  a  new  Thermopylae  ! '  " 

"  There  is  a  courageous  wisdom,  says  an  old 
proverb:  there  is  also  a  false  reptile  prudence,  the 
result  not  of  caution,  but  of  fear."  This  false  reptile 
prudence  gives  expression  to  just  such  sayings  as 
these :  "  We  have  all  the  rights  we  want :  we  en- 
joy this  protection ;  we  are  satisfied."  But  coura- 
geous wisdom  says,  "  What  is  good  and  wholesome 
for  my  brother  ought  to  be  good  and  wholesome  for 
me :  therefore  I  ask  that  the  same  rights  and  immu- 
nities may  be  extended  to  me.  What  right  has  he 
to  obstruct  my  way  ?  "  This  will  not  debar  any  of 
the  weak,  characterless  clinging  vines  from  having 
the  protection  of  man.  Ah,  no!  far  from  it;  and 
men  will  have  to  be  regenerated  before  they  will 
deny  the  dear,  confiding  creatures  the  pleasure  of 
their  protection. 

Never  fear,  timid  sisters  !  the  dominant  power 
loves  authority  too  well  to  deny  you  the  sweet  boon 


104  PROBATE  CONFISCATION, 

you  crave.  They  will  shield  you  from  the  wanton 
breath  of  heaven,  and  its  sunshine  too  if  you  are 
not  careful.  Did  you  ever  notice  an  apple  that  was 
streaked  with  gold  and  red  on  one  side,  and  was 
gnarled  and  green  on  the  other  side  ?  I  have  ;  and 
knew  that  the  puckered-up  side  had  been  nurtured 
under  the  protective  policy.  One-half  was  full  of 
gathered  sunlight ;  it  had  been  drenched  by  the  rains, 
and  tossed  and  buffeted  by  the  gale,  and  yet  it  was 
beautiful  to  the  eye,  and  luscious  to  the  taste ;  while 
its  other  half  had  been  securely  shielded  by  the 
sheltering  leaves,  which  gave  it  a  shrivelled,  dyspep- 
tic look  and  a  bad  taste. 

When  I  see  a  man  who  is  broad  and  catholic  in 
his  opinions  in  every  good  work —  excepting  the 
legal  emancipation  of  woman  —  and  his  wife  narrow 
and  pinched  in  her  views  of  life,  I  mentally  exclaim, 
"  She  cannot  help  it :  is  she  not  protected,  sheltered, 
hedged  about,  by  the  accumulating  fossils  of  centu- 
ries—  the  antiquated  must  of  ages?  What  wonder 
that  her  mind  is  gnarled,  puckered,  and  twisted  out 
of  all  reasonable  growth  ?  There  is  no  growth :  it 
is  standing  still,  stagnation,  a  living  death.  He  — 
the  husband  —  is  full  of  sunshine  and  strength,  gath- 
ered from  daily  battles  fought  and  won.  He  has 
braved  the  elements,  and  rollicked  in  the  sunshine, 
ever  since  he  emerged  from  his  swaddling-clothes. 
No  wonder  he  is  bubbling  over  with  the  milk  of 
human  kindness.  It  has  not  been  kept,  in  his  case, 
in  a  cast-iron  bottle  hermetically  sealed  and  stamped, 


PROTECTION  AND  SUBORDINATION.  105 

with  time-honored  custom.  The  wife  of  such  a  man 
is  not  a  partner,  in  any  true  sense.  The  higher  and 
nobler  attributes  of  life  are  all  shut  away  from  her. 
She  is  simply  a  physical  companion,  a  ministrant  to 
material  needs.  The  husband  seeks  mental  food 
elsewhere,  in  books,  at  the  club,  and  in  his  daily 
intercourse  with  men ;  while  she  is  left  at  home  to 
feed  her  mentality  on  husks.  A  home  is  a  place  for 
him  to  rest  in  at  night,  to  recuperate  for  the  morrow's 
fray." 

It  is  most  astonishing,  what  deep-rooted  prejudice 
pervades  the  minds  of  most  intelligent  women, — in 
other  respects,  —  as  regards  this  babyish  helplessness. 
When  I  was  returning  from  Europe,  I  made  the 
acquaintance,  on  the  steamer,  of  an  exceedingly 
intelligent  lady,  who  was  born  and  reared  in  the 
State  of  Louisiana.  She  spoke  several  languages 
fluently,  and  had  greatly  amused  me  by  her  graphic 
description  of  her  daring  travels  —  she  was  alone  — 
through  France,  Germany,  and  Switzerland  ;  and 
her  persistent  warfare  against  being  overcharged  by 
custom-house  officials,  hackmen,  shopmen,  and  in 
the  settlement  of  hotel  bills,  &c. 

The  day  we  arrived  in  New  York,  she  came  on 
deck,  looking  like  a  butterfly  escaped  from  its  chrys- 
alis (we  experienced  a  rough  passage,  and  had  not 
been  over-particular  about  the  appearance  of  the 
external  woman),  and  exclaimed,  "How  glad  I  am 
we  are  nearing  port !  When  I'm  in  New  York  I'm 
not  obliged  to  know  one  thing  after  I  have  pointed 


106  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

out  my  baggage  to  husband  or  brother ;  and  that  is 
such  a  relief!  "  —  "  You  surprise  me,"  I  exclaimed. 
"  Oh  !  "  she  continued  with  a  coquettish  toss  of  the 
head,  "you  are  a  Northerner,  and  think  differently; 
but  when  I'm  at  home  I'm  just  the  same  as  one  of 
the  children  in  my  own  house.  Husband  is  consult- 
ed  about  every  thing.  I  know  nothing,  absolutely 
nothing,  of  myself.  It  is  such  a  relief  not  to  be 
obliged  to  think  about  any  thing,  to  be  so  tenderly 
cared  for !  I  enjoy  this  thoughtful  attention  so  much  ! 
I  have  one  of  the  best  of  husbands." 

This  woman  was  no  longer  young,  never  had  been 
handsome  or  even  pretty  ;  but  she  liked  to  play 
baby  in  her  own  home,  nevertheless,  with  the  young- 
er babies  which  she  dandled  upon  her  knee.  "  Well," 
I  mentally  ejaculated,  with  a  returning  qualm  of 
sea-sickness,  "  a  most  eminent  man  has  said  that 
'  all's  well  that  ends  well/  and  it  may  be  so  in  this 
case." 

Later,  as  I  was  frantically  searching  among  the 
baggage  on  the  wharf,  for  a  missing  valise,  —  I  had 
no  husband  or  brother  there  to  do  it  for  me,  —  I  saw 
her  calmly  seated  on  a  dry-goods  box,  "  with  a  far- 
away look  in  her  eyes,"  as  the  custom-house  official 
held  up  gowns  and  other  female  paraphernalia  —  a 
la  mode  —  before  the  wondering  gaze  of  the  aston- 
ished husband.  The  veritable  husband  —  she  had 
told  me  so  —  was  on  hand  to  take  charge  of  his 
baby  wife. 

When  the  officer  demanded  my  keys,  I  said,  "  I 


PROTECTION  AND  SUBORDINATION.      107 

nave  nothing,  sir,  in  these  trunks  subject  to  duty. 
I  have  a  sick  sister  in  San  Francisco,  and  am  most 
anxious  to  leave  for  there  on  the  first  train  westward 
bound.  Won't  you  take  my  word  ?  "  He  called 
another  officer,  and  after  a  brief  consultation  they 
said  "  Go  in  peace  ; "  and  I  went,  leaving  my  South- 
ern acquaintance  still  seated  upon  that  dry-goods 
box,  with  the  officers  still  unearthing  boxes,  bundles, 
and  switches  (she  had  informed  me  that  she  had  six 
of  the  latter),  and  her  liege  lord  still  looking  on  with 
amazement  intensified  in  every  line  of  his  handsome 
face :  he  was  a  handsome  man. 

I  did  not  have  my  baggage  opened  but  once  in 
Europe,  and  that  once  was  at  Cherbourg,  on  my  first 
landing ;  and  I  travelled  quite  extensively  upon  the 
Continent  and  through  the  United  Kingdom  ;  and  I 
gave  no  bribes.  The  officers  at  Cherbourg  unlocked 
both  my  trunks,  and  then  asked  me  if  I  had  any 
cigars  or  tobacco  in  them.  I  answered,  "  No ;  but 
my  husband  is  president  of  a  tobacco  company  in 
San  Francisco,  United  States  of  America."  That 
seemed  to  satisfy  them  ;  for  they  immediately  locked 
the  trunks,  and  ordered  the  subordinates  to  restrap 
and  cord  them. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

DOUBLE  LAWS   AND  VALUABLE  DOCUMENTS 

Dulce  est  desipere  in  loco, 

MEN  make  laws, — two  kinds  of  laws;  a  double 
deal  all  round,  as  far  as  women  are  concerned,  —  a 
male  code  and  a  female  code.  Women  are  ruled 
by  the  rod  of  law,  cut  from  the  great  tree  of  male 
arrogance  ;  and  yet  men  say  that  we  are  all  free. 
They  forget  that  freedom  without  equality  is  a 
fraud ;  and  both  therefore,  without  justice,  a  snare. 
What  is  the  meaning  of  freedom  ?  Is  it  to  have  ab- 
solute control  of  our  persons  and  property  ?  "  Does 
history  teach  us  that  we  may  reasonably  hope  to  see 
a  large  disfranchised  class  receive  justice  at  the 
hands  of  its  rulers  ?  "  The  key-note  of  our  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  is,  that  governments  derive 
their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed. 

This  great  idea,  "the  consent  of  the  governed," 
is  the  one  upon  which  the  whole  structure  of  our 
government  is  theoretically  built.  But  in  practice  it 
falls  far  short  of  it.  Congress  takes  from  the  women 
of  the  nation  millions  of  dollars  every  year.  Ac- 
cording to  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  this  is 

108 


DOUBLE  LAWS  AND    VALUABLE  DOCUMENTS.    109 

absolute  tyranny,  because  the  women  have  not  con- 
sented to  this  taxation.  These  law-making  despots 
have  not  the  chivalric  courtesy  to  say,  "  By  your 
leave/'  By  the  theory  of  our  government,  taxation 
and  representation  are  inseparable  correlatives. 

Why  not  remove  at  once,  may  T  ask,  every 
restriction  that  weighs  upon  women  ?  All  adults 
should  be  governed  by  the  same  laws.  No  part  of 
maturity  which  years  bring  should  be  hedged  around 
by  other  laws  than  are  made  by  the  united  voice  of 
the  whole  people ;  not  the  half,  for,  if  but  half  is 
used,  it  —  the  law  —  will  go  halting.  It  will  lack 
that  just  equipoise  which  is  found  throughout  the 
great  physical  balance  of  Nature.  She  never  deals 
in  fractions ;  therefore  the  harmony  —  the  beautiful 
equilibrium  —  of  her  laws. 

Men  have  continuously  made  laws  for  women,  and 
therein  lies  the  secret  of  their  failure.  They  have 
constantly  sought  to  separate  and  divide  what  God 
ordained  from  the  beginning  should  go  together. 
What  just  cause  is  there  for  the  requirement  of 
separate  laws  to  govern  the  lives  of  adults  ?  Does 
not  the  same  sun  light  us  by  day,  and  the  same 
moon  and  stars  by  night  ?  Are  we  not  nipped  by 
the  same  frost,  and  warmed  by  the  same  fire? 
Wherefore,  then,  this  waste  of  time  in  making  laws 
to  cover  two  distinct  classes  of  human  beings  that 
should  be  one,  inseparable  and  undivided  ?  Are  not 
the  laws  complicated  enough  without  this  ?  How 
much  wiser  it  would  be  to  make  one  code  of  good 


110  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

laws,  that  would  reach  adult  humanity  regardless  of 
sex,  color,  or  previous  condition !  Then,  when  the 
husband  dies,  the  wife  can  attend  to  the  joint  estate 
of  husband  and  wife,  the  same  as  a  man  does  when  a 
woman  dies.  The  family  in  this  case  would  not  be 
broken  up,  and  in  no  way  disintegrated,  as  it  is  in 
most  of  the  cases,  at  the  death  of  the  father  and 
husband,  thus  outraging  and  profaning  the  great 
law  of  humanity. 

A  most  annoying,  ridiculous,  and  amusing  (using 
an  anomalous  trinity)  thing  occurred,  in  my  own 
case,  in  relation  to  the  abominable  and  absurd  laws 
made  for  the  control  of  widows.  I  received  a  postal 
card  from  Crabb  &  Co.,  a  prominent  business  firm 
in  San  Francisco,  advising  me  that  they  were  in 
possession  of  valuable  letters  addressed  to  my  late 
husband.  I  at  once  waited  upon  the  said  firm,  and 
asked  for  the  letters.  I  was  met  by  the  pertinent 
inquiry,  "  Are  you  the  widow  of  the  late  J.  W. 
Stow?"  — "I  am,"  I  made  answer.  "Oh,  ah !  " 
continued  the  questioner.  "  I  hadn't  the  pleasure 
of  your  acquaintance,  Mrs.  Stow.  Are  you  the 
executrix  of  the  estate?" — "No;  but  I  am  the 
widow,  and  the  one  most  interested  in  the  finances 
of  the  estate.  I  am  the  one,  in  fact,"  I  continued, 
somewhat  earnestly,  "  now  that  Mr.  Stow  is  dead. 
During  his  life,  the  law  says  that  we  two  were  one, 
and  that  he  was  the  one ;  but,  now  that  he  is  dead, 
I  take  his  place,  and  represent  the  one.  If  I  was  not 
to  be  trusted  with  the  letters,  why  was  I  put  to  the 


DOUBLE  LAWS  AND    VALUABLE  DOCUMENTS.     Ill 

expense  and  loss  of  time  to  come  over  the  bay  "  —  I 
was  living  in  Oakland  at  the  time  —  "  to  meet  with 
a  refusal?  I  am  going  to  the  office  of  the  non- 
executive executor,  and  I  will  place  these  important 
missives  in  his  hands  with  the  seals  unbroken."  — 
"  Oh,  ah  !  "  broke  in  my  polite  interlocutor  :  "  allow 
me  to  accompany  you,  Mrs.  Stow.  I  shall  do  so 
with  the  greatest  pleasure." 

"  You  are  exceedingly  kind,"  I  replied,  reaching 
out  my  hand  for  the  coveted  prize. 

"Excuse  me,  Mrs.  Stow :  I  will  not  trouble  you  to 
carry  them.  I  will  retain  possession  of  them,  if  you 
please,  for  they  are  evidently  most  valuable  docu- 
ments, &c.  It  is  very  necessary,  you  know,  on  ac- 
count of  the  reputation  of  our  house,  you  know, 
that  we  should  do  every  thing  in  a  strictly  business 
way,  you  know." 

When  we  arrived  at  the  non-executor's  office,  we 
found  that  blooming  gentleman  out. 

"  Ah !  this  is  a  most  unfortunate  circumstance," 
exclaimed  the  dyspeptic  representative  of  the.  Crabb 
house.  "  My  time  is  most  precious  this  morning." 

"Indeed!"  I  replied,  with  a  prolonged  look  of 
exquisite  delight.  How  I  nursed  my  well-earned 
happiness,  and  rejoiced  that  I  had  that  pertinacious 
individual  in  a  tight  place  I  and  at  once  commenced 
an  impromptu  disquisition  on  the  charming  laws 
made  by  men  for  the  suppression  of  women  generally 
throughout  the  world,  and  in  California  in  particular, 
with  a  sweeping  review  of  lawgivers  since  the  time 
of  Grotius. 


112  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

Oh,  my!  how  this  wary  fish  did  struggle  and  suffer 
during  the  uninterrupted  harangue  !  From  the  way 
he  squirmed  around  in  that  arm-chair,  one  would 
have  supposed  he  was  sitting  on  a  hornet's  nest  in- 
stead of  innocent  cane.  When  he  could  endure  the 
continuous  fire  no  longer,  he  rose  up  with  a  desperate 
determination  to  hear  no  more.  He  paced  madly  up 
and  down  that  office  (it  is  a  large  one),  grasping  the 
letters  in  one  hand,  while  with  the  other  he  mopped 
his  hot  forehead  with  his  snowy  cambric,  as  he  hurled 
question  after  question  at  the  luckless  wight  of  a 
clerk :  — 

"  When  did  you  say  you  thought  Mr.  Blank  would 
be  in  ?  How  long  did  he  say  he  should  be  out  ?  Does 
he  usually  return  promptly  at  the  hour  named  ?  Do 
you  know  whether  it  was  a  funeral "  (evidently  he 
was  anticipating  his  own  demise  if  he  had  to  remain 
there  much  longer)  "  or  a  wedding  that  took  him 
out  this  morning  ?  Does  he  ever  go  fishing  so  early 
in  the  day  ?  "  (consulting  his  watch,  and  casting  a  fur- 
tive glance  at  the  solemn-faced  clock,  which  ticked 
on  unmoved).  The  thermometer  of  his  misery  rose 
with  my  delight  at  his  ludicrous  position.  The  clerk 
bit  his  lips,  as  he  answered  straight,  and  tore  his  pen 
over  the  paper  at  an  awful  rate. 

Just  at  the  moment  when  he,  the  gallant  repre- 
sentative of  the  Crabb  house,  was  about  to  pass  into 
a  comatose  state,  the  door  opened  and  discovered  the 
head  of  the  office,  to  the  unspeakable  relief  of  the 
eager  and  thoroughly  demoralized  representative. 


DOUBLE  LAWS  A«D    VALUABLE  DOCUMENTS.    113 

He  made  a  lively  dash  at  the  new-comer,  and  said, 
"  Ah !  Mr.  Blank,  I  presume  ?  Mrs.  Stow  had  the 
&£-indness  to  call  for  letters  intrusted  to  our  care, 
addressed  to  the  late  J.  W.  Stow ;  but,  as  we  didn't 
know  Mrs.  Stow,  we  didn't  deem  it  prudent  to  de- 
liver such  valuable  documents  to  -a  woman,  upon  her 
individual  statement." 

"  Oh  I  "  cried  I,  "  why  didn't  you  explain  this  to 
me  ?  There  are  plenty  of  people  in  your  block  who 
do  know  that  I  am  Mrs.  Stow,  and  in  this  building 
also.  I  could  have  saved  you  all  this  delay  if  you 
had  spoken  thus  to  me."  He  condescended  no  re- 
ply, but,  with  a  theatrical  bow,  said,  — 

44 1  wish  you  a  very  good  morning,  madam.  I 
believe  my  whole  juty  in  this  important  matter  is 
honorably  discharged." 

Mr.  Blank  sat  down  at  his  desk  opposite  me, 
holding  fast  the  important  documents.  He  poised 
them  upon  his  finger-tips,  to  feel  their  exact  weight ; 
then  he  looked  sharp  at  the  superscription  ;  then 
turned  the  envelope  over,  and  gazed  long  and  ear- 
nestly at  the  convex  streak  of  mucilage  which  held 
the  edges  together.  At  this  point  I  began  to  grow 
uneasy,  and  said,  "  Mr.  Blank,  the  two  letters  from 
some  unknown  land,  addressed  to  Mr.  Stow,  are 
within  the  large  envelope.  That,  you  see,  bears  the 
coat-of-arms  of  the  Crabb  house.  They,  the  mem- 
bers of  that  house,  have  most  generously  furnished 
it.  Will  you  please  to  open  it,  or  allow  me  to  ?  I 
authorize  you  to  do  it." 


114  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

"  I  don't  think  the  law  will  protect  me  in  so  do- 
ing," said  he,  "  when  the  active  executor  is  out  of 
the  State."  —  "  But  it  does,"  I  replied  :  "  Hittell "  - 
"  You  needn't  quote  Hittell,"  said  he,  rising  in  ap- 
parent haste :  "  I'm  not  a  lawyer,  but  I'll  send  for 
one." 

The  executor's  lawyer  was  soon  upon  the  ground, 
—  or  floor,  rather, — and  the  mystery  of  the  sealed 
letters  duly  explained  to  him.  He  reached  forth  his 
hand,  and  took  the  Crabb  envelope,  which  contained 
the  two  important  letters,  and  "  with  a  smile  child- 
like and  bland,"  gallantly  handed  it  to  me,  saying, — 

"  We  certainly  can  let  Mrs.  Stow  gratify  her  ivo- 
maris  curiosity  by  examining  the  contents  of  these 
letters  in  our  presence" 

The  open  letters  proved  of  no  consequence  to  any 
one,  excepting  to  the  parties  who  wrote  them.  Then 
I  said,  "I  am  very  glad  to  meet  you,  gentlemen, 
together.  I  am  in  very  great  need  of  my  allowance 
money,  which  is  now  several  months  overdue.  Will 
you  explain  to  me  why  it  is  not  paid  ?  "  The  lawyer 
made  answer,  "  This  matter  is  to  be  discussed  with 
your  attorney :  you  know  nothing  about  it." — 
"  More's  the  pity,"  I  replied  ;  "  but  this  much  I  do 
know,  —  that  I  am  in  very  great  need  of  the  money  ; 
not  to  buy  handsome  apparel,  but  to  pay  my  honest 
debts.  HitteU  "  —  "  Mrs.  Stow,"  he  broke  in,  "  don't 
quote  law  to  me :  that's  my  profession  I  "  —  "  But  I 
cannot  afford  to  hire  a  lawyer  every  month,  to  arbi- 
trate for  my  meagre  hundred,"  I  urged.  "  It  seems 
very  hard,  and  like  unjust  persecution." 


DOUBLE  LAWS  AND    VALUABLE  DOCUMENTS.    115 

He  rose  majestically  from  his  chair,  and  turning  to 
the  executor  said,  "  I  don't  think  there  can  be  any 
thing  done  in  this  matter  of  allowance,  until  the 
return  of  Mr.  Blank  number  two  from  New  York." 

"When  will  that  be?"  I  inquired.  "I  cannot 
exactly  say :  he  may  be  absent  several  weeks  long- 
er," answered  the  smiling  friend  of  my  dead  hus- 
band. 

The-  withholding  the  allowance  money  which  the 
probate  judge  had  awarded  for  my  support  was  in 
open  defiance  of  the  written  and  published  laws  of 
California.  The  probate  law  says,  "  Any  allowance 
made  by  the  court  or  judge  must  be  paid  in  prefer- 
ence to  all  other  charges,  except  funeral  charges 
and  expenses  of  administration."  The  judge  awarded 
me  one  hundred  dollars  a  month,  but  declined  to 
give  an  order  for  the  payment  of  the  same,  because 
it  was  contested.  If  there  is  any  truth  in  probate 
law,  he  had  no  right  to  do  that.  The  first  money  I 
got  was  after  a  sharp  skirmish,  a  sort  of  legal  tilt, 
between  the  judge  and  three  lawyers,' while  I  acted 
as  dummy  (women  are  usually  dummies  in  court), 
but  came  off  with  four  hundred ;  then,  after  another 
hotly  contested  siege,  I  got  two  hundred.  After  that 
I  could  get  no  more.  Seven  months,  eight  months, 
uine  months,  went  by ;  and  then  I  said  to  myself,  — 
for  I  had  no  lawyer,  — "  This  won't  do :  we  must 
have  a  great  battle  of  words,  and  compel  a  surren- 
der." Then  I  prepared  a  speech,  and  sounded  the 
bugle-call,  and,  lo !  the  enemy  appeared  upon  the 


116 


PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 


outer  walls,  and  capitulated  ere  a  word  of  my  speech 
was  spoken.  The  judge  gave  me,  then  and  there,  an 
order  for  the  three  hundred ;  and  the  last  three  came 
in  due  order,  monthly.  It  was  the  speech  that  did 
the  business.  Let  all  widows  prepare  speeches, 
whose  allowances  are  contested. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

BROTHERLY  LOVE. 
Nefasti  dies. 

THE  legal  fraternity  of  San  Francisco  are  very 
sensitive  about  any  question  being  raised  as  to  the 
justness  of  the  laws  made  to  govern  peaceful  or 
refractory  widows  —  more  particularly  the  latter.  I 
went  into  an  office  one  day,  —  not  a  law-office,  —  and 
was  freeing  my  mind  somewhat  earnestly  about  the 
outrages  perpetrated  on  all  widows  by  the  heinous 
laws  made  by  men  for  the  suppression  of  women ; 
and,  among  other  facts,  I  mentioned  that  the  Pro- 
bate Court  was  created  for  the  special  purpose  to  rob 
widows  and  orphans. 

In  an  instant  I  was  confronted  by  a  hay-colored 
specimen  of  humanity  on  two  sticks,  whom  I  had 
noticed  sitting  at  a  desk,  reading  in  a  half-audible 
tone,  to  let  me  know,  I  suppose,  that  there  was  one 
individual  present  who  didn't  listen  to  such  heresy. 
However,  his  splenetic  wrath  betrayed  him.  As- 
suming a  terrible  attitude,  and  removing  his  specs, 
—  he  wore  glasses,  —  he  said,  "  Madam,  do  you  wish 
to  insult  ME?"  — "Why  are  you  insulted?"  I  in- 

117 


118  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

quired.  "Who  are  you?  What  are  you?"  — 4i  I 
have  the  honor  to  be  a  member  of  the  San  Francisco 
bar,  madam ;  and  I  will  not  sit  silent  when  I  hear  it 
thus  assailed  by  a  woman."  —  "  Ah,  indeed !"  I  ex- 
claimed, with  a  genuine  stare  of  amazement :  "  that's 
bad  for  the  bar.  But  you  must  bear  in  mind,  my 
friend,  that,  in  polite  society,  present  company  is 
always  excepted ;  and  then,  again,  I  cry  pardon !  for 
I  didn't  recognize  the  lion  in  the  ass's  skin." 

San  Francisco  lawyers  not  only  protect  themselves, 
as  a  legal  brotherhood,  but  they  also  endeavor  to 
protect  the  profession  from  any  encroachment  on 
their  classic  borders  by  laymen ;  and,  above  all,  do 
they  shut  fast  the  doors  of  their  stronghold  to  keep 
women  —  the  feminine  wolves  —  out  of  their  sheep- 
fold. 

I  wrote  my  lawyer,  when  I  was  very  sick,  and 
begged  him,  as  my  allowance  money  was  overdue,  to 
make  all  the  haste  that  was  possible,  which  would 
not  interfere  with  l«gal  dignity,  to  get  it.  I  quoted 
from  the  probate  law,  about  the  right  of  its  being 
paid  at  once.  But  my  law  lore  caused  my  ruin. 
This  lawyer,  whom  I  thought  ere  then  a  friend,  took 
this  private  business  note,  with  his  wounded  amour- 
propre,  to  my  brother-in-law,  so  he  said,  and  urged 
him  to  read  the  note,  saying,  "  I  don't  permit  any 
client  of  mine  to  quote  law  to  me.  Mrs.  Stow  will 
have  to  employ  some  one  else :  she  is  in  too  great  a 
hurry  about  her  allowance."  That  appears  to  be  a 
specimen  of  the  California  "  code  of  honor"  among 


BROTHERLY  LOVE.  119 

some  members  of  the  fraternity.  I  afterwards  went 
to  another  lawyer,  and  engaged  him  to  transact  some 
legal  business  for  me,  and  fixed  upon  the  price  at 
twelve  o'clock  noon.  He  told  me  to  return  in  two 
hours,  and  the  paper  would  be  ready  to  indorse.  I 
was  there  promptly  at  the  hour  named ;  but  to  my 
astonishment,  he  had  made  the  discovery,  during  my 
absence,  that  it  would  cost  half  as  much  again  as  the 
sum  agreed  upon.  Then  I  said,  "  I  am  not  able  to 
pay  so  much.  If  you  had  named  this  price,  I  should 
not  have  had  it  commenced.  I  cannot  go  forward 
witli  it  now,  it  costs  too  much  :  keep  the  paper  until 
I  can,  and,  in  case  I  do  nothing  further  in  the  matter, 
I  will  pay  you  as  soon  as  I  can  for  this  two  hours' 
work."  He  went  out  of  the  office,  and  I  said  to  the 
clerk  who  had  done  the  writing,  "  How  much  do  you 
think  this  will  be  ?  "  He  replied,  "  About  twenty- 
five  dollars."  —  "  Well,"  I  exclaimed,  "  I  think  that  I 
will  study  law,  and  open  an  office,  and  employ  a 
clerk  to  write,  if  he  can  command  twenty-five  dol- 
lars for  two  hours'  work." 

This  lawyer  went  to  my  brother-in-law,  so  he  said, 
.and  told  him  that  he  had  done  work  for  me  equal  to 
seven  days'  copying  which  my  sister  had  done  one 
time  for  her  husband,  and  that  then  I  had  thrown  it 
up.  He  forgot  to  state,  however,  the  reason  why  I 
threw  it  up,  —  the  cause  of  its  turning  on  my  stom- 
ach ;  how  he  had  agreed  upon  one  price,  and  then, 
when  he  thought  he  had  me  in  his  power,  had 
charged  another.  Thus  it  is  that  every  widow  is 


120  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

plucked  on  every  side.  A  widow  acquaintance  of 
mine  said  to  her  lawyer,  "  It  is  impossible  for  me  to 
get  along  with  so  small  an  allowance.  I  must  have 
it  increased."  His  reply  was,  — 

"  Well,  Mrs.  Tribulation,  how  much  can  you  get 
along  with  ?  I  mean,  of  course,  the  very  smallest 
amount." 

"  Mr.  Skinbones,"  she  indignantly  made  answer, 
"  I  employ  a  lawyer  to  get  the  very  largest  amount 
for  me,  not  the  smallest.  Understand  me !  I  wish 
you  to  get  all  you  can,  —  yes,  to  the  last  farthing. 
That  will  be  meagre  enough,  coming  as  it  does 
through  the  all-absorbing  maw  of  the  Probate  Court." 

For  a  long  time  I  had  no  lawyer  (I  found  them 
too  expensive  a  luxury  for  a  widow  on  a  hundred 
dollars  a  month),  to  the  insufferable  disgust  of  all 
concerned.  Men  do  not  like  to  transact  busin.  ->s 
with  women.  The  first  question  asked  would  be, 
"Who's  your  lawyer?  Send  him  round  to  fix  tliis 
thing  up."  When  I  divulged  the  dreadful  fact  that 
I  had  none,  and  that  I  was  pleading  my  own  case, 
there  would  be  an  awful  pause,  after  which  my  ques- 
tioner would  usually  say,  — 

"  Excuse  me,  Mrs.  Stow,  but  you  must  not  forget 
the  old  proverb,  that  *  he  who  serves  himself  in  law 
has  a  fool  for  a  client.'  Now,  I  would  advise  you,  as 
a  friend,  to  get  a  lawyer  by  all  means  ;  and,  while 
you  are  about  it,  get  a  good  one"  —  as  though  any 
of  them  were  bad.  I  listened  to  their  advice,  but 
kept  my  own  counsel. 


BROTHERLY  LOVE.  121 

The  judge  said  to  me  one  day,  that  I  did  not  need 
a  lawyer;  but  at  another  time,  when  he  was  not 
quite  so  amiable,  he  said  I  must  have  one,  for  he 
could  not  act  in  the  capacity  of  judge  and  lawyer 
both  for  me.  I  wrote  several  notes,  at  different 
times,  to  the  judge,  executor's  lawyer,  and  the 
executors.  Each  and  every  one  of  these  private 
notes  were  reported  at  once  to  my  brother-in-law. 
When  he  came  home  at  night  on  these  grave  occa- 
sions, —  I  was  in  my  sister's  house,  —  he  wore  a  dark 
and  ominous  look,  which  heralded  the  coming  storm. 
Then  he  would  say,  —  usually  after  we  had  sat  down 
to  the  table,  and  he  had  served  me  with  my  dinner, 
to  improve  my  appetite,  I  presume,  —  "  You  "  (mean- 
ing me)  "  have  been  writing  again  to  Mr.  Smudge, 
Fudge,  Mudge,"  as  the  case  might  be.  "  Yes," 
I  would  make  answer,  before  the  comments  could 
escape :  "  what  of  it  ?  That's  my  business."  And 
then  the  dinner  would  go  forward  in  black  silence, 
which  was  very  bad  for  digestion. 

I  at  last  added  to  my  letters,  by  way  of  postscript, 
which  it  is  said  a  lady  always  has,  "  Don't  trouble 
my  brother-in-law  about  this  matter :  he  is  very  sen- 
sitive ;  and,  besides,  he  is  not  my  legal  adviser  or 
guardian,  never  has  been,  and  never  will  be  ;  we  are 
too  well  acquainted  for  any  such  relationship." 

The  moment  a  woman  rebels  against  subordination 
to  the  rule  of  some  man,  it  matters  not  how  much 
her  inferior  he  may  be,  there  is  an  uproar  amid  the 
powers  that  be.  When  the  husband  dies,  a  father, 


122  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

brother,  uncle,  brother-in-law,  nephew,  or  son  even, 
—  any  masculine  creature  in  human  form,  —  assumes 
the  sceptre  of  control  over  the  widow ;  and  if  she 
kicks  over  the  traces,  and  holds  the  bit  between  her 
teeth,  and  won't  obey  the  lash,  then  she  is  dubbed 
"  a  monstrosity,  a  disgrace  to  her  sex  ;  ought  to  be 
put  in  a  mad-house,"  &c. 

When  my  lawyer  abandoned  my  case  because  I 
dabbled  in  his  profession,  there  were  among  the 
papers  returned  to  me  some  that  he  knew  nothing 
whatever  about,  —  papers  that  the  veriest  ignoramus 
ought  to  have  known  were  not  for  him,  for  they  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  case  in  hand ;  and  it  is  a 
marvel  how  the  parties  that  executed  them  km-w 
who  my  lawyer  was. 

That  the  machinery  of  justice  works  slowly,  and 
produces  unreliable,  unsatisfactory,  and  uncertain 
results,  is  apparent  to  every  one  who  has  had  the 
misfortune  to  come  under  its  power.  Through  a 
confidence  operation  I  lost  several  hundred  dollars. 
I  commenced  suit  to  recover  the  money  ;  but,  during 
the  many  months'  delay  ere  the  trial,  I  learned  so 
much  about  law  and  lawyers,  that  I  went  and  dis- 
missed the  case,  and  paid  the  costs  of  court,  rather 
than  continue  the  contest.  I  should  have  won  the 
suit  in  the  first  trial,  without  doubt ;  but  it  would 
have  been  taken  to  the  higher  courts  probably,  and 
I  had  no  time  to  waste  in  litigation. 

It  seems  that  it  is  not  worth  while  to  sue  for  less 
than  five  hundred  dollars  :  therefore  one  must  have  a 


BROTHERLY  LOVE.  123 

sharp  eye  to  small  debts,  leases,  &c.,  unless  amply 
secured  against  loss.  Knowledge  is  power,  money, 
health,  and  happiness. 

The  various  professions  have  held  the  masses  in 
ignorance  long  enough.  It  is  high  time  people 
began  to  investigate  for  themselves.  Physicians 
have  often  declined  to  attend  my  husband  in  sick- 
ness, because  they  said  that  he  was  too  intelligent  in 
regard  to  medicine  and  its  effect  upon  the  system, 
and  the  condition  of  his  own  case. 

People  swallow  all  kinds  of  poisonous  concoctions, 
and  then  wonder  why  they  are  always  ailing.  They 
are  caught  in  the  relentless  grip  of  the  law,  and 
wonder  why  they  are  always  poor.  The  exercise  of 
a  modicum  of  common  sense  might  save  them  from 
the  horrors  of  the  former,  and  the  terrors  of  the 
latter.  Practical  knowledge  appears  to  be  purposely 
withheld  from  the  people.  I  went  to  the  Mercantile 
Library  in  this  city,  in  search  of  works  on  law ;  the 
Civil  Code  and  Probate  Law  I  certainly  expected  to 
find  there.  But  no  !  The  librarian  said  that  these 
were  books  that  were  seldom  or  never  called  for: 
consequently  they  were  not  furnished  by  the  society. 
That  is  no  good  excuse.  Works  on  medicine  and 
law,  as  well  as  theology,  should  be  found  in  abun- 
dance on  the  shelves  of  every  library.  Sound  Chris- 
tianity depends  upon  sound  health,  and  sound  health 
depends  upon  potential  knowledge,  kept  bright  with 
daily,  hourly  use. 

Will  not  some  humane  lawyer,  who  has  outwitted 


124  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

want  with  "fat "  cases,  write  a  book  on  how  to  avoid 
litigation ;  give  the  modus  operandi  of  all  the  courts, 
how  many  times  suits  can  be  appealed,  and  how, 
when  they  have  gone  to  the  length  of  the  elastic 
tether  in  one  form,  they  can  begin  all  over  again  ad 
infinitum  ?  If  some  one  will  write  such  a  book  I  will 
sell  it.  I  would  endeavor  to  prove  that  no  library 
was  complete  without  it,  —  and  "Probate  Confisca- 
tion," —  that  every  married  man  and  woman  should 
have  copies ;  that  every  bachelor  and  spinster,  young 
and  old,  should  have  copies;  and  that  every  mule 
and  female  child  should  memorize  them  in  conjunc- 
tion with  their  catechism.  Legal  ignorance  cowers 
in  garrets  and  tenements,  while  legal  wisdom  rolls  in 
carriages  and  is  housed  in  splendor.  An  intelligent 
man  makes  himself  familiar  with  general  law ;  but 
when  he  sees  his  wife  conning  over  its  pages  he  turns 
her  desire  of  gaining  a  little  knowledge  of  its  devi- 
ous ways  into  ridicule,  and  says,  "  Well,  little  puss, 
what  can  you  understand  about  law  ?  What  folly  to 
waste  your  precious  time  on  such  a  dry  pursuit,  that 
will  amount  to  nothing!"  Why  do  husbands  do 
this  ?  I  will  tell  you  why.  Because  they  want  to 
keep  their  precious  simpletons,  in  this  respect,  in 
ignorance  of  the  legal  power  they  hold  over  them. 
Mine  said  the  same  to  me,  yet  I  argued  in  this  wise  : 
"  If  Hittell  is  good  for  }^ou,  Hittell  ought  to  be  good 
for  me,"  and  continued  my  explorations  among  the 
dry  bones.  A  man  whom  I  asked  to  buy  my  book 
replied,  "  No,  no,  Mrs.  Stow  !  I  have  a  happy  home 


BROTHERLY  LOVE.  125 

now,  because  my  wife  knows  nothing  about  law.  I 
would  not  permit  her  to  read  such  a  book  as  that,  no, 
not  if  you  paid  me  fifty  dollars."  Legal  ignorance  in 
wives  is  bliss  to  the  most  of  husbands.  "But,"  you 
may  ask,  "  would  you  have  all  women  study  law  ?  " 
Yes,  to  a  certain  extent.  It  would  be  far  more  prac- 
tical than  parallelograms  and  cube  roots.  I  would 
have  them  familiar  with  the  octangular  rights  of  a 
husband  during  his  life,  and  the  hypotenuse  of  those 
rights  after  his  death.  If  women  would  read  only 
so  much  law  as  pertained  to  themselves,  instead  of 
trashy  novels,  they  would  soon  wake  up  to  its  injus- 
tice towards  them.  Many  of  the  laws  which  govern 
women  to-day  were  codified  by  semi-barbarians,  who 
slew  their  wives  for  committing  adultery,  or  drinking 
wine,  or  other  offences  practised  daily  by  the  hus- 
bands. Those  were  not  masculine  crimes. 

Law  should  keep  pace,  in  its  development,  with 
progressive  intelligence.  This  it  has  not  done ; 
therefore  it  is  unjust.  Justice  is  immortal,  eternal, 
unchangeable,  like  God  himself.  The  great  field  of 
jurisprudence  is  overrun  with  weeds  and  brambles ; 
the  tares  have  outgrown  the  wheat,  because  there 
was  no  one  to  use  the  pruning-hook,  no  one  to  strike 
a  brave  blow  at  corrupt  practices  and  abuses,  no 
one  who  dared  defend  the  weak  against  the  strong. 
This  demands  a  radical  change,  that  justice  may  be 
protected,  rather  than  violated ;  for  without  justice 
there  is  no  wisdom  on  earth,  no  everlasting  princi- 
ple, no  escape  from  oppression,  no  individual  free- 


126  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

dom.  In  law,  as  in  every  thing  else,  long-established 
custom  becomes  as  fixed  and  immovable  as  the  laws 
of  the  Medes  and  Persians.  Men  say  it  is  so  much 
easier  to  jog  along  in  the  old  ruts ;  but  woe  to  the 
outsiders ! 

The  cry  goes  up  daily,  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  civilized  world,  for  the  freedom  of  one- 
half  the  race,  the  emancipation  from  political  bond- 
age, the  pulling  down  of  all  bars  and  barriers,  and 
the  opening  of  all  gates  that  obstruct  the  onward 
march  of  the  whole  people.  Give  to  the  sword  and 
flame  of  reason  and  truth  and  progress,  these  cor- 
rupt laws,  these  time-honored  prejudices,  this  rank 
undergrowth  of  usurpation,  which  have  crippled  the 
energies  of  woman  since  time  began.  Luther  had 
his  reformation,  Cromwell  his  victories,  and  Bunyan 
his  triumphs  ;  but  this  overthrow  of  man-power  shall 
be  the  greatest  of  them  all.  It  is  the  war  of  right 
against  might;  the  sharp,  logical  weapons  of  the 
mind,  scintillating  in  every  direction  against  the 
fossilization  of  the  past,  —  hoary  with  the  hallowed 
dust  of  ages,  —  this  venerated  idol,  custom,  which  the 
irreverent  finger  of  the  iconoclast  dares  to  touch  in 
the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  tools  are  being  forged  in  the  white  heat  of 
indignation,  that  will  break  these  cruel  bonds,  and 
let  the  oppressed  go  free.  Freedom  shall  be  our 
banner-word  and  rallying-cry.  We  will  leave  no 
stone  unloosed  in  the  crumbling  edifice  of  masculine 
power,  so  that  when  the  earthquake  of  reason,  jus- 


BROTHERLY  LOVE. 


127 


tice,  and  humanity  shall  shake  the  foundation-stones, 
it  shall  topple  over  in  perpetual  and  everlasting 
ruin.  But,  when  the  smoke  and  dust  caused  by  the 
fall  shall  have  blown  away,  the  new  builders  shall 
join  with  the  old  forces,  and  reconstruct  from  the 
debris,  and  upon  the  old  site,  a  new  and  more  lasting 
edifice,  a  grand  structure,  beautiful  and  symmetrical 
in  all  its  proportions,  within  whose  walls  no  arm  of 
might  shall  smite  the  brow  of  right. 


CHAPTER  Xni. 

INSOLVENT    ESTATE. 
Aura  sacra  fames. 

EARLY  in  my  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Stow,  he  told 
me  that  William  C.  Ralston,  Edward  P.  Pringle, 
and  himself  were  associated  together  in  an  enter- 
prise for  the  treatment  of  refractory  ores,  known  as 
the  "Hagan  Process  for  the  Disintegration  of  Ores." 
He  said,  "  Ralston  furnishes  the  money,  Pringle  the 
legal  advice,  and  I  the  brain  or  working  power." 
The  whole  thing  was  an  entire  failure,  at  a  loss  to 
the  trio  of  eighty-four  thousand  dollars.  For  several 
years  Mr.  Stow  owed  the  Bank  of  California  for  a 
portion  of  his  pro  rata  of  the  expenses ;  but  he  said, 
when  the  Metropolitan  Gas  Works  were  sold  out  to 
the  old  gas  company,  that  he  paid  off  his  entire  in- 
debtedness to  the  bank. 

Mr.  Ralston  had  provided  the  money  —  some 
$400,000  — to  build  up  the  Metropolitan  experi- 
ment of  making  gas  from  crude  petroleum,  which 
proved  another  fiasco.  J.  W.  Stow  furnished  the 
mental  part,  officiated  as  president  of  the  compa- 
n}-,  and  superintended  the  whole  vexatious  enter- 

128 


INSOLVENT  ESTATE.  129 

prise,  working  day  and  night  for  many  months  to 
perfect  it.  The  foundations  of  the  building  were 
not  "  laid  upon  a  rock,"  but  in  a  pool  of  odoriferous 
mush  on  Mission  Creek.  I  saw  men  —  fine  hand- 
some fellows  too,  some  of  them  —  standing  in  this 
filth  (it  was  upon  the  site  of  an  old  hog  corral  and 
slaughter-house,  and  is  known  by  the  euphonious  and 
elegant  name  of  "  Hog  Town  ")  up  to  their  girdles, 
laying  bricks  and  driving  piles.  It  for  a  long  time 
appeared  to  be  "  love's  labor  lost;  "  for  each  morn- 
ing found  both  bricks  and  piles  non  est  to  all  human 
ken.  I  heard  Mr.  Stow  say  to  Gen.  Alexander, 
"  The  very  deuce  is  in  the  thing.  We  drove  piles 
ninety  feet  long  yesterday;  and  this  morning  we 
probed  the  spot  with  a  ten-foot  pole,  but  could  not 
find  a  vestige  of  their  whereabouts.  I  think  the  old 
gent  vulgarly  known  as  Satan  is  building  another 
Sodom  down  there,  and  has  use  for  many  piles  and 
much  brick,  by  the  way  they  disappear.  It  is  the 
bottomless  pit."  After  the  walls  were  up,  and  the 
roof  on,  the  entire  building  had  a  way  of  sailing 
round  from  one  point  to  another,  which  gave  the  local 
engineer  no  end  of  quakes.  The  gas-holder  looked  as 
though  it  had  been  through  the  wars  and  was  under 
hospital  treatment,  with  a  liberal  supply  of  "  d'Ar- 
tagnan's  baume,"  for  it  was  swaddled  like  a  new- 
born babe. 

Although  the  old  company  paid  over  half  a  million 
dollars  for  the  works,  which  took  it  into  their  head 
to  blow  up  and  explode  the  day  after  the  consurama- 


130  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

tion  of  the  much-desired  sale,  it  would  seem  that  my 
husband  was  paid  nothing  —  that  is,  nothing  com- 
mensurate with  his  expectations,  and  for  the  labor 
performed ;  for  the  old  claim  of  the  bank  is  brought 
against  the  estate,  with  the  accrued  interest,  which 
amounts  to  forty  thousand  dollars. 

Before  I  left  for  Europe,  in  1874,  I  had  a  thor- 
ough business  understanding  with  Mr.  Stow.  He 
said,  "  We  are  worth  at  least  two  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars,  besides  your  separate  property ;  and  I 
owe  no  man  a  dollar.  I  squared  up  with  the  Bank 
of  California  when  the  gas-works  were  sold  out  in 
San  Francisco,  the  franchise  in  Oakland,  and  the 
closing  out  of  the  Treadwell  estate."  Now,  in  the 
face  of  this  statement,  the  old  claim  rises,  clad  in 
full  armor,  like  the  Danish  ghost,  and  is  awarded 
by  the  executors. 

Mr.  Pringle  said  in  open  court,  that,  if  Mr.  Stow 
had  lived,  the  Bank  of  California  would  never  have 
brought  a  claim  against  him,  as  he  was  a  most  valu- 
able man  to  that  organization.  In  other  words,  a 
live  man  would  not  have  to  pay  his  debts  twice ; 
but,  dead,  the  estate  is  mulcted  of  forty  thousand 
dollars. 

Mr.  Stow  would  have  been  alive  to-day,  and  a  rich 
man,  instead  of  lying  in  Lone  Mountain,  with  an 
estate  which  the  executors  and  Probate  Court  have 
brought  down  to  pay  only  sixty  cents  on  a  dollar,  if 
he  had  attended  to  his  legitimate  business  as  mana- 
ger of  the  Russell  &  Erwin  Manufacturing  Company, 


INSOLVENT  ESTATE.  131 

and  not  been  led  off  by  men  who  coined  the  prod- 
ucts of  his  brain  into  money  for  their  own  aggran- 
dizement. 

I  said  to  him,  often  and  often,  "  You  are  commit- 
ting daily  suicide,  personal  and  financial,  in  the 
course  you  are  pursuing.  You  are  not  physically 
strong.  You  should  not  do  one  other  thing  besides 
the  management  of  your  legitimate  business.  You 
will  be  far  richer  in  the  end  if  you  listen  to  me,  and 
conserve  your  health  and  strength  for  years  cf  use- 
fulness. These  men  who  lure  you  from  the  duty 
you  owe  this  company,  in  whose  employ  you  are,  are 
not  your  friends  in  any  worthy  sense.  They  will 
kill  you  with  overwork,  while  they  pat  you  on  the 
back,  and  say, '  You  must  not  work  so  hard,  my  boy,' 
and  beggar  me  by  taking  every  thing  I  have  when 
you  are  dead." 

"  No,  no  !  "  lie  would  reply.  "  You  mistake  and 
misjudge  my  friends  :  they  will  treat  you  like  a  sister 
were  I  to  die  before  you." 

The  sequel  will  prove  whose  prophecy  was  correct, 
his  or  mine.  At  this  writing  he  has  been  dead  over 
a  year  and  a  half,  and  there  never  has  been  an  ac- 
count rendered  by  the  executors  ready  for  publish- 
ing. The  probate  law  says  that  there  shall  be 
various  accounts  published,  quarterly,  semi-annually, 
and  yearly.  I  have  risen  for  an  explanation  many 
times,  but  in  vain  —  aside  from  some  informal  hear- 
ings in  the  judge's  chambers.  I  have  sought  often 
to  have  Mr.  Pringle  and  the  executors  meet  me  in 


132  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

open  court,  at  a  time  when  I  was  destitute  of  that 
necessary  evil  —  in  probating  —  a  lawyer,  that  I 
might  have  the  opportunity  to  express  myself  pub- 
licly in  reference  to  my  grievances.  But  no  :  in  each 
and  every  case  I  was  most  graciously  awarded  a  pri- 
vate interview.  The  judge  could  not  tarnish  the 
purity  of  his  ermine  by  granting  so  undignified  a 
request ;  and  Mr.  Pringle  was  not  going  to  dull  his 
polished  steel  by  tilting  with  a  widow  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  vulgar  herd  of  the  court-room,  thereby 
robbing  some  brother  lawyer  of  a  fee.  No,  no !  A 
lawyer  is  the  one  thing  needful  for  a  widow.  With- 
out a  piloting  lawyer  she  is  tossed  upon  the  tempes- 
tuous sea  of  doubt  and  uncertainty.  The  very  first 
question  that  is  asked  by  every  one  is,  "  Who's  your 
lawyer?  "  And  when  you  — if  you  are  a  widow  — 
reply,  "I  have  none,"  the  interrogator  gasps  for 
breath,  turns  black  in  the  face,  his  eyes  become  fixed 
and  immovable,  and  you  imagine  he  has  got  a  fit  of 
apoplexy  until  he  opens  his  mouth,  when  you  are 
likely  to  be  undeceived.  A  widow  in  Oakland, 
whose  husband's  estate  was  valued  at  a  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  was  probated  ;  and,  as  usual,  there 
was  nothing  left  for  her  but  a  large  vexation  of  spirit, 
and  the  insurance  on  the  late  husband's  life  of 
twenty  thousand  dollars.  Strange  to  relate,  there 
was  some  legal  technicality  about  the  policy  ;  and 
the  magnanimous  company,  seeing  it  was  a  woman, 
offered  to  compromise  for  half  its  value.  She  was  so 
tired  of  law  and  lawyers  —  poor  little  simpleton  — 


INSOLVENT  ESTATE.  133 

that  she  preferred  to  take  the  half-leaf  fresh  when 
she  could  get  it,  than  the  whole  loaf  stale  at  the  end 
of  lightning  litigation.  However,  friends  —  widows 
always  have  friends  under  such  circumstances  — 
advised  her  to  employ  some  tiptop  lawyer  ;  none  of 
your  penny-a-liners,  for  good  pay  means  good  work. 
She  accepted  the  advice,  and  procured  the  service  of 
two  experts,  —  thinking,  no  doubt,  if  one  is  good,  two 
must  be  better.  They  only  got  the  sum  offered  her 
by  the  insurance  company,  and  the  fee  charged  by 
them  covered  all  of  it ;  and  she  went  forth  into  the 
great  highway  of  life  to  earn  her  own  living,  a  sadder 
but  a  wiser  woman.  She  has  no  need  of  lawyers 
now,  nor  they  of  her.  The  admiration  is  mutual. 

I  have  sat  in  the  court-room  (Probate),  and  heard 
the  lawyers  discussing  cases  (ere  the  judge  was  upon 
the  bench  —  which,  by  the  by,  is  no  bench  at  all, 
but  a  soft  cushioned  arm-chair  with  a  canopy  behind 
it),  and  chuckle  over  the  plump  ones,  as  they  said 
confidentially,  "  It's  a  good  one  :  there's  money  in  it." 
Then  I  thought  of  the  widow  sitting  powerless,  while 
the  legal  ligature  tightened,  day  by  day,  round  her 
neck  and  the  necks  of  her  darlings  ;  and  wished  that 
she  was  as  fortunate  as  the  man  I  heard  tell  of  when 
I  was  a  child,  who  had  been  a  cripple  for  twenty 
years,  and  who  was  not  afraid  of  ghosts  and  haunted 
houses.  Near  him  was  a  vacant  house  that  all  the 
neighbors  said  was  haunted.  But  he  declared  to  a 
robust  friend  one  evening,  as  the  shadows  began  to 
deepen,  that  he  was  not  afraid;  and  that  robust 


134  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

friend  instantly  seized  him,  and,  lifting  him  upon  his 
broad  shoulders,  carried  him  to  the  open  door  of  the 
haunted  house.  A  man  came  out  of  the  open  door, 
and  said  in  an  unearthly  voice,  "  Is  he  fat,  or 
lean?"  —  "Fat  or  lean,  take  'im,"  said  the  robust 
friend,  dumping  his  burden  upon  the  ground,  and 
taking  leg-bail  to  safer  quarters.  The  cripple  lost 
sight  of  his  infirmities  from  sheer  fright,  and,  rising 
from  the  ground  with  one  spring,  bounded  away 
after  his  companion  in  flight.  The  house  was  the 
rendezvous  of  sheep-thieves,  but  the  courageous  man 
was  healed  of  his  affliction  ever  afterwards. 

Would  that  all  widows,  whether  "fat  or  lean," 
could  make  as  fortunate  an  escape  from  the  open 
door  of  the  thieving  Probate  Court,  with  its  spongy 
excrescences  and  cruel  extortions !  It  openly  sets  at 
defiance  its  own  august  laws,  or,  rather,  the  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  which 
says,  "  The  right  of  the  people  to  be  secured  in  their 
persons,  houses,  business,  and  effects,  against  unrea- 
sonable search  and  seizure,  shall  not  be  violated ;  and 
no  warrant  shall  issue  but  upon  reputed  cause,  sup- 
ported by  oath  or  affirmation  particularly  describing 
the  place  to  be  searched,  and  the  person  or  thing  to 
be  seized."  In  the  face  of  this  law,  a  widow's  house 
is  turned  into  a  pandemonium  the  moment  the  hus- 
band is  under  the  sod.  It  is  overrun  by  the  min- 
ions of  the  law,  searched,  and  every  thing  of  value 
sequestered,  should  the  estate,  under  covert  manipu- 
lation, be  proved  insolvent.  And  insolvency  being 


INSOLVENT  ESTATE.  135 

the  rule,  and  not  the  exception,  this  law  is  violated  a 
hundred  times  each  day,  if  the  entire  nation  is  in- 
cluded in  the  estimate.  A  widow  has  no  protection 
in  her  own  home  against  the  marauding  parasites  of 
the  Probate  Court.  Her  house  is  ransacked,  her  chil- 
dren stolen  from  her  guardianship,  and  her  private 
grief  dragged  through  the  gutter  of  publicity.  In 
her  best  estate  of  insolvency,  if  she  is  so  fortunate 
as  to  have  landed  property,  she  is  turned  out  of 
doors  with  the  munificent  dower  of  five  thousand 
dollars  at  the  end  of  one  little  year. 

In  Christian  England,  when  the  husband  forges 
and  swindles,  the  wife  of  the  felon  is  robbed  of  all 
her  private  property  to  eke  out  the  loss.  She  is  left 
to  beg  or  starve,  as  in  the  recent  case  of  Winslow. 
How  noble  and  humane  !  That  English  law  ought 
to  cross  the  sea,  and  court  and  wed  our  probate  law. 
Then  all  our  probate  judges,  special-probate  lawyers, 
guardians,  referees,  executors,  appraisers,  clerks, 
publishers,  posters,  reporters,  and  probate  scaven- 
gers, could  dance  at  the  wedding-feast. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

MOTHER  AND   CHILD. 
Aude  sapere. 

THERE  is  one  place  in  the  laws  of  California 
where  "  children,  women,  and  persons  of  unsound 
mind "  have  the  advantage  over  male  adults :  they 
can  contest  the  validity  of  a  will  after  the  year 
has  expired.  Mark  you  how  it  reads!  Women  are 
sandwiched  between  children  and  fools.  Children 
include  boys,  therefore  they  are  placed  before  moth- 
ers ;  for  after  the  husband  comes  the  son,  to  take 
precedence  of  the  mother  at  the  father's  death.  The 
son  at  fourteen  years  of  age  can  choose  and  appoint 
his  own  guardian.  A  lad,  by  law,  becomes  at  four- 
teen wiser  than  his  mother  at  forty. 

What  a  sagacious  law,  and  how  fragrant  with  mas- 
culine wisdom !  Here  is  a  mother  who  probably 
has  all  her  governmental  ingenuity  taxed  to  control 
the  exuberance  of  youthful  America,  without  his 
having  it  within  his  power  to  turn  upon  her  with  a 
law-weapon,  and  say,  "  Oh !  I  don't  care  what  you 
say  nor  what  you  think :  you  are  not  my  guardian/' 

Again :  as  soon  as  she  marries,  she  becomes  dis- 

136 


MOTHER  AND   CHILD.  137 

qualified  to  have  the  control  of  her  own  children, 
A  premium  is  thus  offered  for  widow-celibacy ;  for 
what  mother  wants  to  be  deprived  of  the  lega? 
guardianship  of  her  young  children  ? 

This  is  rather  a  paradoxical  dilemma;  for  one 
would  suppose  from  the  hue  and  cry  raised  about 
the  race  dying  out,  or  progressing  in  an  inverted 
ratio  of  degeneracy  towards  its  prehistoric  ancestors, 
that  every  man  would  prefer  to  see  every  widow 
married  again,  and  working  out  her  true  salvation  — 
with  a  babe  at  her  breast  and  another  at  her  knee. 
Why  is  not  a  widower  deprived  of  the  legal  .con- 
trol of  his  children  as  soon  as  he  solaces  himself 
with  better  half  number  two,  three,  or  four,  as  the 
case  may  be  ?  Surely  motherless  orphans  stand  in 
greater  danger  of  abuse  from  stepmothers  —  if  half 
the  tirade  of  abuse  waged  against  them  can  be  be- 
lieved—  than  when  such  children  are  subjected  to 
the  shortcomings  of  stepfathers.  Nature  ordained 
motherhood  from  the  beginning  the  real  guardian  of 
its  offspring  ;  but  more  potent  man  perverts  the  nat- 
ural order  of  things,  and  shows  to  the  world  that  he 
is  superior  in  judgment  to  the  venerable  dame.  Na- 
ture admits  of  a  feminine  declension :  therefore  the 
departure,  I  suppose. 

When  a  widow  marries,  a  grandfather  on  the 
paternal  side  has  the  first  right  to  the  guardianship 
of  her  children.  He  is  armed,  cap-a-pie,  with  the 
full  panoply  of  the  law  to  step  in  and  rule.  No 
matter  how  old  and  decrepit  he  may  be,  or  how 


138  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

much  of  a  grinding  miser,  or  how  non-progressive  — 
as  to  the  requirements  of  the  age — in  his  ideas  of 
education  and  choice  of  pursuits,  for  those  whom  the 
law  has  placed  under  him.  The  mother  and  the 
man  that  she  has  married  have  no  voice  in  the  mat- 
ter. They  are  silent  witnesses  of  the  unbending 
arrogance  of  the  legal  ruler.  His  will  is  absolute. 

A  son  may  have  all  the  requisite  ability  for  a  lead- 
ing profession,  or  a  fine  mechanical  genius;  and  the 
mother  anxious  and  eager  as  himself,  that  he  may  be 
allowed  to  follow  the  inherent  bent  of  his  God-given 
faculties.  But  no !  the  inflexible,  old-fashioned, 
treadmill  grandfather  puts  his  foot  down  with  an 
emphasis,  and  says,  "  No !  he's  got'er  foller  in  the 
footsteps  uv  his  father  and  gran'father.  It  shall 
never  be  said  I  let  the  illustr'us  house  uv  4  Grubb  & 
Son'  die  out  fur  the  want  uv  a  lineal  representa- 
tive." And  so  the  mother  and  son  bow  to  the  in- 
evitable, rather  than  meddle  with  the  gracious  and 
time-honored  law  that  has  turned  the  current  of 
their  hopes  up  stream. 

This  heinous  law  of  guardianship  has  its  legal  grip 
upon  the  unborn  child.  What  marvel  is  it,  in  the 
name  of  highest  heaven,  that  women  resort  to  any 
means,  and  at  any  price,  to  rid  themselves  of  such 
savage  thraldom  by  abortions  and  the  deadly  preven- 
tive drugs  and  nostrums  which  are  ruinous  to  health, 
causing  barrenness,  premature  decay,  and  death  ? 

There  is  no  use  in  beating  about  the  bush  to 
discover  the  true  cause  of  barrenness  in  American 


MOTHER  AND   CHILD.  139 

women  to-day.  That  with  the  untoward,  legalized 
licentiousness  of  men,  who  are  often  diseased  from 
the  crowns  of  their  heads  to  the  soles  of  their  feet, 
because  long-established  custom  permits  and  winks 
at  debauchery  in  high  places.  Look  at  the  fearful 
death-rate  among  infants  up  to  five  years  of  age ! 
What  causes  the  slaughter  of  the  innocents  ?  Cor- 
ruption of  blood,  which,  could  it  be  traced,  in  very 
many  cases  would  be  found  to  originate  in  the  licen- 
tiousness of  men  —  male  prostitutes,  with  the  seeds 
of  their  crimes  planted  in  the  vitals  of  their  children. 
And  such  men  as  Drs.  Clark  and  Van  de  Walker 
charge  home  this  guilt  upon  the  innocent.  They 
had  better  change  the  base  of  their  investigations 
bearing  upon  female  weakness,  and  carry  their  re- 
search into  home-quarters,  the  unexplored  regions 
of  male  weakness,  with  cause  and  effect. 

Men  sow  their  "  wild  oats"  broadcast;  and,  when 
they  come  to  harvest  them,  the  crop  turns  out  to  be 
h  urnan  tares  in  the  shape  of  abortive  children.  Such 
children  tear  the  hearts  out  of  their  mothers  (those 
"  physical  beauties"  which  Herbert  Spencer  goes 
into  raptures  over)  in  the  endeavor  to  control  the 
corrupt  blood  inherited  from  diseased  fathers,  which 
breaks  out  in  all  kinds  of  ailments  during  infancy 
and  childhood. 

Said  a  beautiful  mother  who  has  three  young  chil- 
dren, and  all  sickly,  to  me,  "  I'm  at  a  loss  how  to 
account  for  the  continuous  ailment  of  my  babies: 
no*  one  of  them  but  has  sore  ears,  eyes,  or  some  kind 


140  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

of  scrofulous  disease,  and  I  never  had  a  sick  hour  in 
ray  life,  excepting  at  their  birth.  There  is  no  blood- 
tairit  in  my  family."  What  is  the  matter  with  these 
children  ?  No  one  would  dare  claim  that  there  was 
corrupt  blood  in  that  fair  young  mother's  veins  ; 
yet  she  and  her  innocent  babes  pay  the  penalty  of 
vice.  She  is  not  only  debarred  from  society  by  the 
care  of  these  three  ailing,  suffering  children,  but  her 
loving  heart  is  wrung  every  hour  in  the  day  by  their 
sufferings,  which  she  AS  impotent  to  relieve.  Thi>  is 
paying  a  large  price  to  perpetuate  the  race,  and  a 
very  poor  quality  is  obtained  at  an  immense  cost  to 
the  innocent,  while  the  transgressor  goes  compara- 
tively unscourged.  The  great  want  of  the  age  is 
virtuous  fathers  ;  for  if  a  clear  stream  is  an  outlet  for 
a  muddy  one,  are  they  not  both  contaminated  .as  soon 
as  the  waters  mingle  ?  No  pure  breeding  can  come 
from  any  source  unless  the  male  is  sound ;  and  that 
can  never  be  for  humanity,  until  there  is  a  moral 
code  for  man  as  well  as  woman.  Give  us  pure  fa- 
thers for  a  few  generations,  and  the  improvement  in 
humanity  will  record  itself  in  the  constitutional 
vigor  of  our  children. 

I  urge  every  woman  who  is  in  search  of  a  hus- 
band to  look  out  for  physical  health  and  manly 
beauty,  "  for  the  sake  of  the  race."  Do  not  bestow 
a  glance  on  the  lean,  dyspeptic,  cadaverous  biped. 
Shun  him  as  you  would  a  pestilence.  Remember 
that  not  the  midnight  student's  lamp  has  caused  this 
tvreck,  but  the  midnight  debauch.  Remember  his 


MOTHER  AND   CHILD.  141 

"  wild  oats"  and  the  inevitable  harvest.  Remember 
that  many  a  wife  is  stigmatized  as  "  barren, "  whose 
husband  could  not  reproduce  his  species,  were  he  to 
suffer  the  penalty  of  death  for  the  failure.  He  has 
squandered  his  virility  in  riotous  prodigality ;  the 
life  of  the  fountain  has  run  dry.  And  who  is  to 
blame  ?  The  woman,  of  course,  —  the  oft-repeated 
story  of  the  "  apple,"  over  and  over  again,  ad  infini- 
tum,  ad  nauseam. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  law  codes  and  two  kinds 
of  moral  codes, — masculine  and  feminine,  distinct 
and  separate.  Men  have  made  and  administered  both 
kinds ;  with  what  success,  the  present  disjointed 
times,  as  regards  all  manner  of  corruption,  bear 
abundant  evidence.  But  what  else  could  be  ex- 
pected, where  licentiousness  has  its  most  luxuriant 
growth  and  grandest  efflorescence  at  the  fountain's 
head? 

My  husband  went  up  to  Sacramento,  once  upon  a 
time,  to  use  his  influence  in  some  legislative  matter ; 
and  on  his  return  he  said  to  me,  "  It  is  very  dan- 
gerous for  you  to  let  me  go  to  the  capital  alone. 
Mr.  So-and-So,  a  State  Senator,  asked  me  if  I  would 
not  like  to  have  a  lady  share  my  apartments  with 
me.  I  replied,  '  No  !  I  don't  indulge  in  the  luxury.' 
Then  this  modern  Solon  exclaimed,  'The  dickens, 
you  say !  You're  a  veritable  Joseph  by  nature,  as 
well  as  by  name.  Why,  bless  you,  there  isn't  a 
member  in  either  house,  if  he  hasn't  his  wife  with 
him,  but  has  his  woman.9 ' 


142  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  that  member  was  a  stranger 
to  the  manner  of  life  of  the  most  of  those  lawgivers. 
Still,  from  the  sequence,  I  should  judge  that  he  was 
a  "  bosom  friend  "  of  them  all.  In  Washington  the 
lobbyists  understand  the  nature  and  practice  of  men 
in  high  places,  and  know  that  the  surest  way  to 
secure  the  passage  of  their  pet  schemes  is  to  distrib- 
ute large  sums  of  money  —  thousands  of  dollars  — 
among  the  sumptuous  palaces  of  the  courtesans,  that 
these  women  may  influence  and  cajole  senators  and 
representatives  into  favoring  their  public  and  private 
projects. 

When  women  sit  in  the  halls  of  legislation,  a 
death-blow  will  be  given  to  prostitution,  and  the 
loose  governmental  garment  which  men  make  to 
cover  themselves  and  their  dark  deeds  while  tin  y 
draw  such  a  tight  rein  on  woman.  Women  will  not 
resort  to  prostitution  for  a  livelihood  when  they  are 
freed  from  legal  serfdom.  Four  years  (the  aver 
life  of  an  abandoned  woman)  of  gilded  misery  — 
with  the  dissec ting-knife  and  the  potter's  field  staring 
her  in  the  face  when  the  breath  is  out  of  her  polluted 
body  —  will  not  prove  a  sufficient  inducement  then 
for  a  life  of  shame.  This  should  not  be  an  alluring 
picture  even  now ;  and  yet  I  see  daily  upon  the  streets 
of  San  Francisco  fair  young  girls,  perfect  Hebes  in 
the  matchless  symmetry  of  form  and  feature,  with 
the  brand  of  infamy  upon  their  brow,  and  I  think  an 
agonizing  cry,  —  "O  God!  where  are  the  desolated 
homes,  and  the  Rachel  mothers  mourning  because 


MOTHER  AND   CHILD,  145 

they  are  not ;  dead,  yet  living  —  dead  to  every  thing 
but  shame ;  mothers  whose  tears  of  love  have  fallen 
like  rain  in  baptismal  blessing  upon  their  innocent 
baby  faces,  blessed  by  thousands  of  kisses,  and  sanc- 
tified by  thousands  of  prayers !  "  For  such  as  these 
estrays,  out  of  the  fold,  men  —  fathers  and  brothers, 
husbands  and  sons  —  sit  in  the  capitals  of  the  States, 
and  make  it  legal,  this  sale  and  barter  in  mortalflesh 
and  immortal  soul. 

Talk  of  black,  ignorant  slavery!  Unhand,  un- 
shackle, and  unslave  white,  intelligent  womanhood ; 
take  the  foot  of  the  law  —  shod  with  an  iron  heel  — 
from  off  the  necks  of  the  free-born  daughters  of 
America,  who  are  down,  and  struggling  to  get  free ; 
down  in  brothels,  to  be  kicked  and  scoffed  at ;  down 
in  gilded  mistress-palaces,  to  be  ostracized  by  society ; 
down  as  efficient  educators,  on  half-pay  ;  down,  and 
half  starving,  as  a  great  army  of  producers ;  down 
as  non-producers  —  the  real  paupers  of  society  ;  down 
as  wives,  unpaid  and  oftentimes  unappreciated,  whom 
the  ''''just  "  law  prohibits  from  selling  even  the  small- 
est article  of  personal  apparel,  or  from  transacting 
any  legal  business,  without  the  co-operation  of  the 
husband  (unless  it  be  her  separate  estate),  even 
though  he  be  entirely  supported  by  her  mental  or 
manual  labor ;  down  as  widows  and  mothers,  whose 
sons  at  one  and  twenty  push  them  from  their  stools. 

Out  upon  such  a  state  of  things  !  I  cry  aloud  to 
every  woman  in  our  blood-bought  land  of  freedom  — 
God  forgive  the  standing  lie  !  —  to  rise  up  and  clothe 


144  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

herself  in  the  stanch  armor  of  determination,  and 
give  battle  to  this  legalized  usurpation.  Forge  the 
will-power  into  a  Damascus  blade,  keen  and  sharp  at 
the  edge,  and  strike  out  from  the  shoulder,  not  car- 
ing whom  it  hits,  until  double  laws  and  single  vices 
are  unknown ;  until  what  is  unclean  in  a  woman 
will  be  equally  vile  in  a  man.  Let  us  go  back  to 
first  principles,  and  have  "  one  law,  one  faith,  and 
one  baptism ;  "  the  simple  law  of  right,  the  white 
faith  of  the  just,  and  a  pure  principle  baptism.  Spe- 
cial laws  and  special  protection  for  one-half  the  race 
have  proved  a  failure.  There  is  too  much  law,  too 
much  legislation  :  cut  away  the  useless  part,  and  lop 
off  the  gnarled  branches  which  protect  Avomen  from 
the  free  sunlight  of  heaven.  Oh  for  a  modern  Jus- 
tinian, to  simmer  down  two  thousand  law-tomes  into 
the  condensed  extract  of  fifty  modest  folios !  Oh  for 
honest  men  who  legislate  for  right,  instead  of  power ! 

"  God  give  us  men  I     A  time  like  this  demands 
Strong  minds,  great  hearts,  true  faith,  and  ready  hands  ; 
Men  whom  the  lust  of  office  does  not  kill, 

Men  whom  the  spoils  of  office  cannot  buy; 
Men  who  possess  opinions  and  a  will ; 

Men  who  love  honor,  men  who  will  not  lie." 


CHAPTER  XV. 


Empta  dolor e  docet  experientia. 

SOME  seventeen  years  ago,  I  was  spending  the  day 
with  a  friend  who  resided  in  a  small  village  in 
Northern1  Ohio.  She  had  living  with  her,  at  the 
time,  a  little  grandson  between  three  and  four  years 
of  age.  He  was  a  lovely  child,  with  large  blue  eyes, 
shaded  by  long  dark  eyelashes  ;  a  mouth  of  rare 
sweetness,  whose  lurking  dimples  were  a  perpetual 
invitation  for  kisses ;  rings  of  flossy  gold  lay  in  thick 
clusters  above  his  shapely  brow ;  his  ringing  laugh 
was  clear  as  a  bugle-note :  all  the  village  knew  and 
loved  the  happy  child  that  brightened  the  home  of 
the  aged  couple,  bringing  the  gladness  of  spring  to 
the  threshold  of  winter. 

"  He  is  the  sunbeam  in  my  heart,  and  the  joy  of 
my  home,"  said  the  proud  and  happy  grandmother, 
as  she  caught  him  in  her  arms,  and  covered  his 
laughing  face  and  shining  curls  with  kisses.  "  Next 
to  his  mother,  he  loves  me  better  than  anybody  in 
the  world  :  don't  you,  Birdie  ?  "  she  continued. 

145 


146  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

"  Me  do,  me  do  'ove  'ou  dearly,  g'an'ma,"  replied 
the  child. 

About  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  as  we  were 
sitting  upon  the  piazza,  and  the  child  was  al  play 
with  his  little  dog  upon  the  grass-plat  in  front  of  the 
house,  a  carriage  came  dashing  down  the  street  at  a 
furious  rate,  drawn  by  horses  smoking  with  heat  from 
fast  driving,  and  drew  up  before  the  place.  It  had 
hardly  stopped  ere  the  door  was  pushed  violently 
open,  and  a  young  handsome  man  sprang  to  the 
ground,  and  came  hurriedly  through  the  gate  and 
up  the  walk.  At  sight  of  him,  the  child  clapped 
his  hands  in  an  ecstasy  of  delight  as  he  shouted, 
"  Papa's  come,  papa's  come !  "  The  young  man 
bowed  politely  to  my  friend  Mrs.  Brown  ;  then  he 
lifted  the  child  in  his  arms,  saying,  "  I  have  come  to 
take  you  riding  in  the  pretty  carriage  :  will  you  go 
with  me?" 

"And  g'an'ma  too,  g'an'ma  too?"  broke  in  the 
pleased  child. 

"  We  will  see,"  replied  the  young  man  ;  and,  turn- 
ing to  Mrs.  Brown,  he  gave  a  command  that  curdled 
my  blood. 

"  Get  Willie's  things  ready  as  soon  as  possible,' 
he  said.     "  I  am  going  to  take  him  where  you  and 
his  mother  will  never  see  him  again,  until  she  keeps 
faith  with  me  as  a  wife." 

"For  the  love  of  God,  you  don't  mean  to  carry 
out  that  dreadful  threat,  Mr.  Vincent  ?  "  cried  Mrs. 
Brown,  in  an  agony  of  grief. 


FATHER  AND   CHILD.  147 

"  Yes,  I  do ;  and  if  you  cannot  get  his  clothes  to- 
gether in  ten  minutes,  without  making  a  fuss  about 
it,  I'll  take  him  just  as  he  is." 

For  an  instant  Mrs.  Brown  stood  with  her  hands 
pressed  tightly  upon  her  wildly  beating  heart,  and 
her  swimming  eyes  raised  to  heaven  :  then  she  said, 
in  a  tremulous  voice,  "  Dear  Lord  Jesus,  thy  will  be 
done !  "  With  close-pressed  lips,  and  a  firm  step, 
she  moved  about  from  room  to  room,  and  gathered 
together  from  drawers  and  closets  the  little  ward- 
robe, the  making  of  which  mostly  consisted  of  her 
own  loving  handiwork  —  the  pretty  dresses  and  warm 
jackets  which  she  had  cunningly  fashioned  for  her 
darling.  Every  garment  was  made  double.  It  was 
not  alone  the  thread  which  held  seam  and  gusset  and 
band  in  place :  they  were  woven  through  and  through 
with  the  stitches  of  her  love  and  motherly  blessing  ; 
warm  mittens  and  gay  stockings,  knitted  before  the 
ruddy  firelight  at  eventide,  after  the  busy  day  was 
done.  How  happy  she  was,  planning  for  his  future 
as  she  turned  the  tiny  heel,  turning  over  in  her 
mind,  meanwhile,  the  possibility  that  he  might  some 
time  be  a  preacher  of  the  gospel !  That  was  the 
height  of  her  ambition,  and  to  her  the  height  of  all 
earthly  attainment ;  for  she  was  a  devout  Christian. 
And  when  she  pressed  the  last  good-night  kiss  upon 
his  unconscious  brow,  as  he  lay  rosy  and  beautiful  in 
that  blessed  sleep  of  childhood,  with  what  a  conse- 
cration did  she  carry  him  up  to  the  Throne  of  Grace, 
and  lay  him,  with  the  burden  of  her  love,  upon  the 
bosom  of  the  Master  I 


148  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

When  all  was  ready  she  said,  "  Come  to  grandma, 
Willie,  and  have  on  your  cloak  and  hat:  papa  is 
going  to  take  you  to  ride."  "  And  'ou  too,  g'an'ma," 
said  the  eager  child,  who  had  been  diverted  by  the 
tick  of  his  father's  watch,  as  he  listened  to  hear  it 
strike,  and  had  not  noticed  the  grief  of  his  grand- 
mother. But  when  he  saw  the  tears  coursing  over 
her  quivering  face  he  said,  "  Me  won't  go  to  'ide, 
g'an'ma :  me  'oves  'ou  dearly,  me  does.  Go  way, 
papa !  go  way !  me  don't  want  to  'ide  wid  'ou  ;  go 
way!  'ou  makes  g'an'ma  cry,  go!  "  As  he  said  this 
he  kissed  Mrs.  Brown  again  and  again,  ever  repeat- 
ing, "  Me  'oves  'ou,  me  'oves  'ou,"  as  he  wiped  away 
the  fast-falling  tears  from  her  withered  cheeks. 
"  Go  !  me  tells  'ou,  papa !  "  said  he,  doubling  his  little 
fist,  and  shaking  it  angrily  at  his  father,  who 
stepped  quickly  forward,  and  with  an  impatient 
"Come  to  me!"  took  him  from  the  arms  of  Mrs. 
Brown,  who  burst  into  an  uncontrollable  wail  of  sor- 
row as  she  tottered  down  the  steps  of  the  piazza  after 
the  father,  who  was  midway  the  walk  to  the  carriage. 

At  that  moment  another  actor  in  the  intensely 
thrilling  drama  burst  upon  the  scene,  in  the  person 
of  the  young  wife  and  mother.  She  sprang  to  the 
rescue,  through  the  open  gate  and  up  the  walk,  wiili 
the  supple  swiftness  of  a  tigress  bereft  of  its  young, 
and,  snatching  the  child  from  the  father,  with  flashing 
eyes  ind  white  lips  exclaimed,  "  How  dare  you  come 
here  to  steal  my  child,  break  my  mother's  heart,  and 
trail  her  gray  hairs  in  the  dust !  " 


FATHER  AND   CHILD.  149 

"  I  came  for  my  child,  which  the  law  gives  me ; 
and  that  is  stronger  than  your  love.  I  have  an  order 
from  the  court.  I  should  like  to  see  you  fly  in  the 
face  of  that."  "  We  shall  see,  Arthur  Vincent,  which 
is  the  strongest  —  the  wicked  laws  made  by  men 
such  as  you  are,  to  rob  mothers  of  their  babes,  and 
the  love  which  lives  on  through  an  eternity  of  bliss, 
after  the  criminal  laws  made  and  enacted  here  cease 
their  diabolical  power.  We  shall  see!"  "I  shall 
take  him  away  to-day,  Mary :  I  have  the  first  right 
to  him  as  his  father ;  and,  besides,  I  have  the  order 
from  court.  You  cannot  circumvent  that."  "  Have 
you  truly  an  order  from  a  court  of  justice  ?"  "  Yes, 
I  have :  would  you  like  to  see  it  ?  "  "  No,  I  spit 
upon  and  defy  this  court  of  justice  and  its  vile 
orders.  And  beware!  I  give  you  warning,  the  mo- 
ment you  and  your  just  law,  and  just  court  which 
enacts  this  just  law,  steals  my  child,  prepare  to  die  ; 
for  at  that  moment  you  are  a  doomed  man.  I  swear 
it  by  highest  heaven  and  lowest  hell,  you  are  a 
doomed  man  ! " 

"  Amen  and  amen !  "  I  responded  audibly.  The 
baffled  man  turned  upon  me  a  look  of  insufferable 
disgust,  as  he  hissed  between  his  clenched  teeth, 
"  We  shall  see  !  If  that  cursed  bolt  had  not  been 
lost,  I  should  have  been  gone  an  hour  before  you 
could  have  arrived.  The  next  time  I  come  for  him 
you  will  not  have  a  fool's  warning,  as  you  had  this 
time.  I  shall  keep  my  own  counsel  hereafter." 
"  Why  do  you  take  him  from  his  grandmother,"  she 


150  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

continued,  "  and  put  him  with  a  strange  nurse,  where 
he  will  be  exposed  to  every  evil  that  childhood  is 
subject  to  in  cities,  and  where  he  cannot  be  as  happy 
as  he  is  here  with  those  that  love  him  ?  "  "I  will 
leave  him  now,  rather  than  prolong  this  contro- 
versy. But,"  said  he,  turning  to  the  grandmother, 
"  Mrs.  Brown,  I  charge  you,  before  this  witness," 
pointing  to  the  burly  coachman,  "  do  not  let  Marjr, 
until  she  returns  to  me  like  a  true  wife,  take  him  out 
of  your  sight.  If  you  do  you  shall  suffer  the  full 
penalty  of  the  law." 

"Arthur,"  said  the  young  wife,  stepping  close  to 
his  side,  with  the  child  still  in  her  arms,  "  when  you 
love  me  better  than  rum  and  harlots  I  will  live  with 
you,  but  not  before.  You  have  your  choice,  but  my 
child  you  shall  not  have."  "  How  can  you  help  my 
taking  him  ?  He  is  more  than  three  years  old,  and 
at  that  age  the  law  gives  him  to  me." 

"  Yes,  there  again !  the  law !  In  the  face  of 
drunkenness  and  all  kinds  of  licentious  debauchery 
on  the  part  of  the  husband,  it  nevertheless  takes 
the  child  out  of  a  virtuous  mother's  protection,  —  if 
she  refuses  to  live  with  one  whose  touch  is  moral 
pollution,  —  and  consigns  him  to  a  father  whose  only 
claim  upon  him  is  that  of  the  pleasure  of  begetting. 
And  this  is  called  justice  !  " 

" l  Until  you  can  rail  the  seal  from  off  the  law,' 
Mary,  'you  but  offend'  —  you  know  the  rest,"  said 
Vincent  with  a  scornful  curl  of  the  lip.  "  I  shall 
surely  take  him." 


FATHER  AND   CHILD.  151 

"  Take  him  at  your  peril !  I  dare  you  touch  but  the 
hem  of  his  garment  to  rob  me  of  him  !  and  I  repeat, 
you  are  a  doomed  man,  though  I  suffer  perdition  for 
it ;  though  my  soul  writhe  in  nethermost  hell  till  the 
end  of  eternity  —  I  will  slay  you  at  my  first  oppor- 
tunity. Like  an  avenging  Nemesis,  a  thirsty  blood- 
hound upon  your  track,  my  vengeance  shall  be  swift 
and  certain." 

The  man  had  turned  deadly  pale  while  she  spoke, 
for  there  was  a  dangerous  glitter  in  the  woman's 
eyes ;  and  when  she  paused,  he  laid  his  hand  upon 
her  arm,  which  she  shook  off  as  though  it  had  been 
a  viper's  and  the  touch  deadly,  and  said  he  to  her 
with  a  pleading  look  in  his  eyes,  — 

"  Come,  Mary,  let  us  be  friends.  You  know  how 
I  love  you  both,  and  how  hard  it  is  for  me  to  live 
without  you." 

"  Very  hard,"  she  replied  with  a  mocking  laugh. 
"  You  suffer  the  same  now,  probably,  that  you  did 
in  being  separated  from  me  when  I  carried  this  child 
beneath  my  heart,  in  loneliness  and  sorrow ;  while 
you  were  in  a  distant  city,  living  as -you  and  your 
God  alone  know  how.  Your  life  flowed  on  as  best 
pleased  you,  far  from  your  young  wife,  who  was  left 
to  starve  or  find  means  of  support  other  than  a  hus- 
band's, or  become  an  object  of  charity  among  her 
proud  kindred.  This  child  of  contention  might  have 
first  seen  the  light  of  heaven  in  the  gutter,  for  all  the 
care  you  had  about  it  or  me,  so  long  as  you  could 
squander  your  earnings  on  lewd  women  and  wine. 


152  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

And  since  that  bitter  time  what  have  ycu  contril> 
uted  towards  our  maintenance?" 

"  Nothing,"  doggedly  replied  the  man,  impatient- 
ly tapping  the  toe  of  his  boot  with  his  cane,  '*  be- 
cause you  refused  to  live  with  me." 

"  Here  in  my  mother's  house,"  she  continued,  "  I 
found  that  love  and  hospitality  which  my  husband 
failed  to  furnish  me  in  the  most  tragic  hour  of  a 
woman's  life.  Here  my  babe  was  born,  and  cradled 
in  my  mother's  bosom,  as  I  had  been  before  it.  Here 
it  has  the  best  of  care,  the  best  of  food, — both 
physical  and  mental,  —  and  the  best  love ;  and  here 
it  is  going  to  remain,  in  spite  of  father-rights,  la\v- 
rights,  or  Satan-rights.  Divine  rights  are  over  and 
above  them  all;  and  they  give  the  child,  regardless 
of  sex,  to  the  mother,  particularly  if  she  has  always 
supported  it,  is  able  to  continue  to  do  so,  and  is  in 
every  respect  a  true,  pure  woman." 

"  These  are  pretty  theories,  prettily  spoken,  Mary,*' 
said  Vincent,  with  a  look  of  tranquil  superiority 
upon  his  face  peculiar  to  men  ;  "  but  they  won't  hold 
water ;  they  don't  belong  to  solids." 

Without  heeding  the  ironical  interruption  she  con- 
tinued, -- 

"To  my  mother  I  am  indebted  for  life  to-day. 
She  gave  me  a  refuge  in  my  bitter  need,  and  she  has 
sheltered  and  provided  for  my  child  —  with  such 
assistance  as  I  have  been  able  to  render  —  ever  since. 
But  now  the  just  law  has  power  to  steal  him  out  of 
her  bosom  and  mine.  And  for  what,  forsooth? 


FATHER  AND   CHILD.  153 

Because  he  is  a  male  child,  and  I  refuse  to  live  with 
his  father  for  crimes  that  Christianity  and  virtuous 
society  wink  at  in  a  man,  but  which  in  a  woman 
they  brand  as  fallen  and  outcast ;  which  give  a  wide 
space  in  passing,  lest  their  holy  and  sanctimonious 
garments  be  smirched  by  contact.  O  Christianity, 
justice,  and  consistency,  what  jewels  thou  art !  " 

44  Mary,  you  can  safely  count  me  out  as  a  hen- 
pecked husband,  or  a  fit  subject  for  petticoat-rule  in 
any  form  of  canting  homilies.  I've  not  been  used 
to  them.  I  shall  never  turn  teetotaller  to  please  any 
woman ;  and  there  are  some  other  things  necessary 
to  the  health  and  enjoyment  of  men,  which  I  don't 
think  incompatible  with  good  husbands." 

He  waited  an  answer,  as  he  gazed  at  her  with  a 
look  of  mingled  admiration  and  defiance,  ft  was  a 
beautiful  picture  to  look  upon.  She  had  uncon- 
sciously taken  the  exact  pose  of  the  di  San  Sisto 
Madonna.  The  child  in  its  play  had  untied  her 
bonnet-strings,  and  it  had  fallen  upon  the  grass  at 
her  feet,  leaving  the  head  uncovered  save  by  its  own 
wealth  of  auburn  hair,  which  was  gathered  in  all  its 
wavy  luxuriance  in  a  loose  knot  at  the  back,  from 
which  escaped  here  and  there  a  curl  that  the  wind 
moved  gently  with  a  loving  touch.  Her  form  re- 
tained all  its  girlish,  symmetrical  beauty,  while  the 
crown  of  motherhood  sat  upon  her  brow  with  a 
matchless  grace. 

She  was  looking  far  out  beyond  the  line  of  the 
village,  upon  the  billowy  meadows  and  sloping  hill- 


154  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

sides,  where  the  long  shafts  of  the  setting  sun  lay 
like  glory-rays,  throwing  over  the  whole  scene  a 
golden  halo. 

What  a  picture!  and  what  a  grouping! — that 
gathered  family  of  three  generations,  riven  by  vice ; 
the  father  and  mother  so  young  and  so  beautiful, 
and  should  have  been  so  happy  —  so  capable  were 
they  of  receiving  and  imparting  happiness;  the 
lovely  child ;  the  aged  mother  and  grandmother, 
touched  by  the  frosts  of  many  winters,  scorched  by 
the  rays  of  many  summers,  and  withered  by  the 
breath  of  many  sorrows ;  the  little  dog  sitting 
upon  the  door-step,  impatient  and  anxious,  waiting 
to  have  a  frolic  with  its  young  master ;  the  surly 
coachman,  whose  looks  plainly  showed  that  he  would 
like  to  see  his  "  wimmin-folks"  making  such  a  fi 
the  tired  horses  ;  the  dusty  road  ;  the  pretty  cottage, 
with  its  vine-clad  veranda.  How  peaceful  and 
happy  it  looked,  all  save  the  dramatis  personce.  It 
made  an  ineffaceable  impression  upon  my  memory, 
stamped  in  with  imperishable  dyes,  never  to  be  oblit- 
erated by  time. 

The  father  broke  in  upon  the  mother's  revery,  by 
saying  to  the  child,  "  Come  and  ride  in  the  pretty 
carriage  with  papa  ?  " 

"  No  ! "  answered  the  boy.  "  Me  'ill  stay  wid 
mamma  an'  g'an'ma.  Me  s'ant  'ide  to-day.  Go  !  " 

"  Yes,  I  will  go ;  but  the  next  time  I  come  you 
will  go  too,  I'm  thinking,  and  you  won't  come  back 
either."  Without  another  word  he  entered  the  car- 


FATHER  AND   CHILD.  155 

riage,  and  drove  rapidly  away.  His  last  prophetic 
sentence  was  spoken  in  anger,  resentment,  and 
brute-force  power,  strengthened  by  brute-force  laws 
to  subordinate  the  physically  weak.  Ah !  how  little 
he  divined  its  import,  its  terrible  significance  !  The 
next  time  he  came,  little  Willie  did  go  to  ride  in  a 
"  pretty  carriage  ; "  but  it  was  long  and  narrow,  with 
black  plumes  waving  over  it.  The  father  followed, 
speechless,  in  the  ashes  of  his  supremacy,  a  sadder  if 
not  a  better  man.  Man  proposes,  but  God  disposes. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

SPLIT-WOOD   AND  THIRDS. 
Jure  humano. 

GRANNY  GREEN  sat  spinning  on  her  little  wheel, 
one  summer  afternoon  ;  and  as  the  shining  flax  slipped 
through  her  fingers,  and  was  twisted  into  a  thread 
that  would  make  the  warp  of  the  crash-towels  that 
were  wanted  up  at  the  big  house  on  the  hill,  she 
crooned  an  old  love-ditty,  ever  and  anon  glancing 
over  her  spectacles  at  Tab,  sitting  bolt  upright  by 
her  side,  with  his  tail  comfortably  wrapped  round  his 
toes  to  keep  them  warm.  They  both  appeared  to  be 
buried  in  their  own  thoughts :  Tab's  probably  ran 
on  the  habits  of  mice  and  the  prehistoric  gopher, 
while  his  mistress's  were  wandering  among  the  living 
memories  of  the  dead  past,  thinking  of  the  pretty 
picture  in  the  looking-glass  and  mirrored  in  the  still 
pond  sixty  years  ago,  when  she  first  knew  Obadiah 
Green,  —  Obadiah,  whose  last  resting-place  is  marked 
by  the  swelling  mound  under  the  willow  on  the 
other  side  of  the  brook  which  comes  tumbling  down 
the  hillside,  laughing  and  purling  in  a  thousand 
sparkling  eddies  as  it  hurries  toward  the  river, — 

156 


SPLIT-WOOD  AND   THIRDS.  157 

"  For  men  may  come,  and  men  may  go,  but  it  laughs 
on  forever,"  —  thinking  of  the  day  when  she  stood  in 
bridal  white,  with  snowy  blossoms  in  her  hair,  and 
promised  to  love  and  obey  Obadiah  Green  "  till  death 
do  us  part." 

She  had  kept  her  vows  —  not  a  hard  thing  for  her 
to  do  at  that  period  of  the  world's  history,  for 
Granny  Green  spun  her  last  skein  and  sung  her  last 
ditty  fifty  years  ago.  In  those  non-u  evil  days  "  a 
wife  and  children  knew  no  law  but  the  law  of  blind 
obedience  to  the  legal  master,  the  father  and  hus- 
band. Against  these  laws  of  the  "  Medes  and  Per- 
sians," Granny  Green  never  rebelled.  She  loved 
Obadiah :  to  her  it  was  "  a  pleasure  to  do  his  bid- 
ding," and  "  pleasure  physics  pain."  They  had  lived 
in  peace  with  each  other,  and  with  all  the  world 
beside  ;  blessing  God  when  a  little  child  was  born 
unto  them,  and  not  repining  when  it  was  laid  away, 
like  a  withered  flower,  under  the  daisies. 

Granny  Green  was  comely  in  person  at  fourscore. 
She  had  grown  old  gracefully  for  one  in  her  humble 
sphere  in  life.  Trials  she  had  had,  for  those  none 
can  escape ;  but  she  had  borne  the  most  of  them  with 
meekness,  and  the  expectant  trust  of  the  true  be- 
liever in  the  joys  of  the  life  to  come.  But  there  was 
one  trial  in  reserve  for  her,  during  all  those  years, 
that,  when  it  came,  was  most  distasteful  to  her ;  and 
she,  with  all  her  Christian  philosophy,  was  unable  to 
reconcile  it  with  dutiful  forbearance. 

At  the  time  of  Obadiah  Green's  death,  she  was 


158  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

living  in  the  big  house  on  the  hill.  That  was  her 
home,  and  there  she  expected  to  dwell  the  remnant 
of  her  days  on  earth ;  and  from  that  house  she 
expected  the  messenger  to  call  for  her ;  and  from 
out  that  door,  with  baptismal  blood  of  ownership 
upon  its  lintel,  she  expected  to  be  carried  in  white 
robes,  with  folded  hands  and  placid  brow,  and  laid 
beside  the  husband  of  her  youth,  the  tried  compan- 
ion of  maturity,  and  the  father  of  her  children,  there 
to  rest  till  the  sound  of  the  trumpet  should  bid  her 
"come  up  higher."  But  she  was  mistaken.  She 
had  trusted  in  God's  divine  laws  of  right  and  justice, 
not  man's ;  but  on  earth  it  would  seem,  as  regards 
marriage  law,  that  God  proposes  and  man  disposes. 
Obadiah's  testament  ran  thus  :  "  I  will  and  bequeath 
to  my  beloved  wife,  Sally  Green,  the  third  part  of 
all  my  possessions,  houses,  lands,  live  stock,  furni- 
ture, &c.,  to  use  and  to  hold  for  her  benefit  during 
her  natural  life ;  the  which,  at  her  death,  must  be 
equally  divided  between  my  two  surviving  children, 
Obadiah  and  Sally.  To  my  son  and  daughter  I 
bequeath  an  equal  amount,  one-third  of  all  I  die 
seized,  to  each  —  share  and  share  alike.  I  further 
will  that  my  son  Obadiah,  immediately  after  my 
burial,  move  into  my  house,  and  take  my  place  in 
regard  to  my  wife  and  his  mother,  paying,  as  soon 
as  convenient,  my  daughter  Sally  —  wife  of  John 
Wood  —  the  value  of  one-third  of  the  house  and 
the  furniture  therein." 

Obadiah,  jr.,  was  living  at  that  time  in  the  little 


SPLIT-WOOD  AND   THIRDS.  159 

house  where  Granny  Green  was  accustomed  to  spin, 
and  philosophize  on  the  ups  and  downs  of  life  in  her 
old  age. 

The  mandates  of  the  legal  instrument  were  carried 
out  to  the  letter.  For  one  year  Mrs.  Green  —  old 
Mrs.  Green :  110  one  thought  of  calling  her  G-ranny 
when  she  lived  in  the  big  house  on  the  hill — made 
her  home  with  her  son.  Although  the  house  had 
nine  rooms  besides  the  kitchen,  old  Mrs.  Green  soon 
found  out  that  a  third  of  nine  rooms,  plus  the 
kitchen,  meant  one  small  bedroom  off  the  general 
sitting-room,  where  the  youthful  Greens,  sons  and 
daughters  of  Obadiah,  jr.,  were  ready  at  all  times 
to  pounce  in  upon  her  quiet,  upturning  her  work- 
basket,  upsetting  her  wheel,  and  upheaving  all  peace 
and  good  order,  besides  engendering  an  uprising  of 
hostile  feelings  in  the  breast  of  the  grandmother 
against  the  encroachers  and  transient  squatters  upon 
her  limited  territory. 

At  last  there  came  a  day  when  patience  had  ceased 
to  be  a  virtue ;  and  old  Mrs.  Green  had  a  "  serious  " 
talk  with  Obadiah,  jr.,  the  result  of  which  was  a 
removal  of  the  disturbing  element  in  that  gentle- 
man's household  to  safer  quarters,  the  little  cottage 
known  as  "  Granny  Green's  cottage."  She  got  the 
pleasing  sobriquet  of  "  Granny "  from  her  grand- 
children, who  always  spoke  to  and  of  her  as  "  Gran- 
ny "  ever  after  the  removal. 

Her  son  rarely  visited  her,  unless  she  was  sick; 
his  wife,  never ;  and,  when  the  children  came,  they 


1GO  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

were,  as  ever,  an  affliction  and  a  perpetual  torment 
as  long  as  they  staid.  Tab  took  to  the  ridge-pole  of 
the  cottage  as  soon  as  he  saw  one  of  their  noses 
poked  through  the  gate  ;  he  having  great  respect  and 
consideration  for  that  member  of  his  body-corporeal 
which  the  "  guid  mare  Meg  "  lost  on  the  "  Brig  o* 
Doon,"  by  an  unlucky  contact  with  a  near  kin  of 
theirs.  Towz  would  suddenly  remember  that  he 
had  not  paid  his  dead  master  a  visit  in  "  mony  "  a  day, 
and  go  trotting  off  down  the  well-worn  path  and 
up  the  knoll,  where  he  would  stretch  himself  at  full 
length  among  the  myrtle  which  covered  the  mossy 
mounds.  There  was  more  than  one  to  cover.  Stand- 
ing in  the  space  between  the  longest  and  shortest  of 
these  graves  was  an  old-fashioned  splint-bottomed 
chair.  In  that  chair,  every  day  when  the  sun  shone, 
sat  Granny  Green,  with  Tab  in  her  lap,  and  Towz  at 
her  feet,  thinking,  always  thinking.  She  was  not 
obliged  to  do  much  but  think  nowadays,  for  Maggie, 
the  maid-of-all-work  at  the  big  house  on  the  hill, 
came  every  morning  to  "rid"  things  up;  but  she 
always  came  too  late,  and  found  every  thing  in  spick- 
span  order  when  she  got  there.  Granny  Green  was 
the  soul  of  order,  and  her  physical  wants  were  few 
and  easily  supplied ;  but  she  was  human,  and,  like 
the  most  of  us,  she  often  got  very  tired  of  thinkino 
Then  she  would  spin  and  knit  for  the  thankless  peo- 
ple in  the  big  house  on  the  hill ;  but  she  could  not 
drive  away  thought  by  the  hum  of  the  wheel,  or  the 
click  of  her  knitting-needles.  Wearying  of  both, 


DRIFT-WOOD  AND   THIRDS.  1C1 

she  would  call  to  Tab  and  Towz,  and  bid  them  listen 
to  what  she  had  to  say  to  them.  They  were  intelli- 
gent companions,  and  knew  the  history  of  the  last 
three  generations  of  Greens,  all  by  heart. 

On  this  particular  afternoon,  when  Granny  Green 
sat  crooning  at  her  spinning-wheel,  she  heard  a  light 
footfall  upon  the  brick  walk,  and  looking  up,  she  saw 
Hetty,  her  favorite  granddaughter,  a  rosy  lass  of 
nineteen  summers  plus  nineteen  winters,  but  to  the 
grandmother  still  a  child  who  ought  to  be  in  short 
clothes  and  pinafores,  instead  of  indulging  in  sweet- 
hearts and  long  dresses.  The  song  and  the  wheel 
stopped  at  the  same  instant ;  and,  putting  out  her 
hand,  she  said,  "  Where've  you  been,  child  ?  I've 
not  seen  you  for  a  fortni't." 

"  I  wanted  to  come  and  see  you,  Granny,"  replied 
Hetty,  pressing  her  fresh  red  lips  to  the  faded  cheek 
of  the  old  lady  ;  "  but  we've  been  very  busy  up  at 
the  house,"  —  as  it  was  usually  called  by  members  of 
the  family,  — "  and  I  couldn't  find  a  spare  minnit 
till  this  afternoon."  "  Why,  what's  up  now  ?  No 
more  weddin's,  I  hope,"  sighed  Granny  Green ;  for 
although  the  children  of  her  only  son  were  far  from 
being  all  she  could  wish,  yet  when  they  dropped  out 
of  her  uneventful  life,  by  death  or  marriage,  their 
places  left  a  vacancy  which  could  never  be  filled. 
They  were  of  her  blood  ;  and  blood  is  stronger  than 
water,  if  it  has  not  been  perverted  —  adulterated  — 
beyond  all  recognition. 

In  spite  of  her  constant  companions,  the  dog  and 


162  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

cat,  Granny  Green  led  a  very  lonely  life  among  the 
memories  of  the  past,  and  the  graves  of  her  dead  ; 
and,  in  spite  of  her  trust  in  God,  she  oftentimes  felt 
very  rebellious  over  her  unnecessarily  hard  and 
cheerless  lot.  She  was  in  this  mood  when  inter- 
rupted by  the  coming  of  Hetty. 

The  young  girl  dropped  down  upon  the  grass 
before  the  spinning-wheel,  and,  throwing  off  her 
gingham  sun-bonnet,  patted  Tab  on  the  head,  as  she 
answered  the  query  of  her  grandmother  in  the  short- 
est possible  way. 

"  Yes,  Granny,"  she  made  reply,  while  her  face 
turned  crimson,  "  there  i&  to  be  a  wedding  up  at  the 
house." 

"  Who's  trapped  this  time,  —  man,  or  boy;  woman, 
or  child?  "  almost  groaned  Granny  Green. 

"  I  don't  know  what  you  call  me,  Granny,  but  I'm 
the  bird  that's  caught,"  said  Hetty,  laughing,  and 
bending  over  Tab,  who  had  curled  himself  up  in  her 
lap,  to  better  hide  her  blushes.  She  and  Tab  had 
been  on  the  most  amicable  terms  ever  since  she  had 
eschewed  short  frocks. 

"  You,  child  ! "  screamed  Granny  Green,  throwing 
up  her  hands,  and  sitting  back  in  her  chair  so  sud- 
denly that  her  spectacles  flew  over  the  top  of  the 
distaff,  happily  lodging  in  the  ample  tuft  of  flax 
which  adorned  it,  and  thus  saving  their  owner  the 
price  of  a  new  pair ;  for,  had  they  fallen  to  the  walk, 
they  would  have  been  dashed  to  fragments.  Her 
cap-frill  fairly  bristled  with  excitement.  As  soon  as 


SPLIT- WOOD  AND   THIRDS.  163 

r 

she  recovered  her  breath,  she  continued,  "  Why, 
it's  only  yesterday,  as  it  were,  that  you  were  born ; 
and  now  to  be  married !  What  is  Obadiah  thinking 
about  ?  " 

44  How  old  were  you,  Granny,  when  you  were 
married  ?  "  demurely  questioned  Hetty,  as  one  who 
knows  that  he  has  the  head  of  the  nail  in  sight,  and 
the  hammer  in  hand  ready  to  strike. 

44 1  ?  lem'me  see :  I  —  why,  bless  me,  I  was 
eighteen ! " 

"  And  I  am  nineteen,  a  year  older  than  you  were," 
said  Hetty  triumphantly. 

"That's  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  it,  Hetty 
Green.  That  was  sixty  years  ago,  and  people  ought 
to  learn  something  in  sixty  years.  You  are  no  more 
fit  to  git  married  than  a  baby :  you  never  have  spun 
a  skein  of  yarn  nor  wove  a  yard  of  cloth  in  your 
life ;  you  don't  know  how  to  cook  a  meal  of  vittles, 
nor  wash  dishes,  nor  make  butter,  nor  turn  the  heel 
of  a  stockin'." 

41 1  don't  need  to,"  said  Hetty,  with  a  satisfied 
look  at  her  white,  shapely  hands,  that  were  never  to 
lose  their  beauty  by  hard  labor  and  uncongenial 
pursuits,  "  for  we  are  going  to  live  in  the  city,  and 
board." 

44  Heaven  help  you,  then ! "  continued  Granny 
Green,  44for  that's  no  life  at  all.  Every  one  ought 
to  hev  a  hum  ov  "heir  own,  an'  stay  in  it  till  they 
die,  an'  they  should  be  content  to  live  single  till  they 
git  it.  I  tell  you  what,  Hetty  Green,  no  woman's  fit 


164  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

to  git  married  in  these  degen'rate  days,  when  it's  all 
book-larnin'  and  no  practicability,  under  twen:y- 
five." 

"  What's  amiss  now,  Granny?  "  chimed  in  a  man's 
voice  ;  and  looking  up  she  saw,  leaning  over  the  low 
fence  at  the  side  of  the  house,  a  man  who  had  been 
hunting,  judging  from  his  appearance,  for  he  had  a 
gun  upon  his  shoulder,  and  a  brace  of  ducks  in  his 
hand.  "  Who's  dead,  sick,  or  married  ?  What's  the 
matter  ?  " 

"Matter  enough,  Caleb  White,"  replied  Granny 
Green,  as  she  asked  the  new-comer  to  get  over  the 
fence,  and  take  a  "  chair,"  saying  in  her  thoughtful 
way,  "  You  must  be  all  fagged  out  after  such  a  long 
tramp  as  it  is  to  the  Salt  Marsh  an'  back  agin." 
The  man  did  not  wait  to  be  urged  further,  but  scaled 
the  fence  at  a  bound,  and,  coming  forward,  took  the 
proffered  chair,  and  with  a  friendly  nod  to  Hetty 
said,  "  I  hope  nothink's  goin'  wrong  wid  you  an'  the 
young  lawyer,  miss." 

"  Nothing,"  responded  Hetty,  with  a  sly  laugh : 
"  we're  not  married  yet." 

"  Before  you  are,  Hetty,  if  you  take  my  advice," 
said  the  old  lady,  "you'll  make  this  gay  young 
square  promise  that  you  shall  have  the  hum,  unmo- 
lested, as  long  as  you  live,  an'  in  case  of  his  death 
the  half  of  the  property  shall  be  your'n.  If  he  won't 
do  this,  give  him  his  walkm'-stick ;  for  I  tell  }rou  it's 
very  hard,  when  you're  old  an'  gray,  to  be  turned 
out  of  doors  on  a  third  ov  what  you  an'  he  hev  arnt 


SPLIT-WOOD  AND   THIRDS.  165 

together,  an'  hev  to  be  content  for  the  rest  ov  your 
days  on  split- wood  an'  thirds,  —  splits-wood  an1 
thirds  !  " 

What  Granny  Green  meant  by  split-wood  remains 
a  mystery  to  this  day.  True,  the  ample  fireplace 
in  the  little  cottage  took  in  a  big  backlog,  which 
would  last  a  week,  and  that  was  always  round ;  no 
desecrating  axe  or  wedge  had  cleaved  off  a  fibre  of  its 
rotundity  ;  but  upon  the  polished  fire-dogs  in  front 
of  it  was  piled  split-wood,  which  crackled  and 
snapped  on  a  cold  night  in  midwinter,  sending  up 
myriads  of  sparks  that  whirled  in  an  eddy  above  the 
roaring  chimney-top,  and  fell  in  a  fiery  shower  upon 
the  snow-covered  roof  of  the  cottage.  Perhaps  her 
own  symbolic  life  had  suggested  a  simile  ;  for  at 
eighty  she  stood  alone,  a  riven  trunk,  cleft  and 
storm-beaten,  without  one  green  leaf  or  branch  upon 
it,  waiting,  waiting! 


CHAPTER  XVII. 
"  THRITEN'D    WID    A    CONTINUENZE  "  —  IN    PART 

ALLEGORICAL. 
Le  renard  pr&he  aux  poules. 

GROPING  my  way  one  morning  through  the  clouds 
of  tobacco-smoke  and  bad  air  of  the  Probate  Court- 
room, warily  guarding  against  being  upset  and  fall- 
ing prone  upon  my  face  in  consequence  of  various 
and  sundry  masculine  appurtenances  called  spit- 
toons—  before  the  throne  of  his  Honor,  the  high  and 
mighty  judge  of  the  quick,  and  the  will  of  the  dead, 
I  suddenly  came  in  contact  with  a  little  woman,  all 
up  and  down.  I  mean  by  this,  that  the  space  she 
occupied  was  mostly  perpendicular  space.  She  was 
thin  as  a  knife-blade,  double-edged,  and  her  dress 
was  as  meagre  as  her  person.  It  was  composed  of 
a  linsey-woolsey  gown,  very  narrow  in  the  skirt 
(statuesque),  with  an  old  mangy-black  shawl  so 
tattered  and  worn  that  it  was  a  marvel  how  she  got 
to  the  court-room  that  breezy  morning  with  a  shred 
of  it  left  upon  her  shoulders.  A  cap  with  a  full  frill, 
which  looked  as  though  it  had  been  mislaid  in  the 
coal-scuttle  for  a  month,  adorned  her  head.  The 

1G6 


"TBRITEN'D    WID  A   CONTINUENZE."  167 

only  ample  thing  about  her,  in  the  line  of  dress,  was 
the  shoes  she  had  on ;  and  they  evidently  belonged 
to  some  one  else,  —  her  "  old  man  "  probably,  —  for 
they  were  of  the  heroic  gender  of  shoes,  made  of 
cowhide,  and  called  brogans.  A  pair  of  small, 
twinkling  gray  eyes  looked  straight  ahead  along  the 
bridge  of  her  nose,  and  shot  off  the  end  of  it  in  a 
parallel  line,  piercing  the  murky  atmosphere  like  an 
arrow,  until  the  course  of  vision  was  obstructed  by 
the  judge's  chambers  —  which,  by  the  by,  ought  not 
to  be  pluralized ;  for  they  (or  it,  rather)  consist  of 
one  diminutive  room.  It  is  long  and  narrow,  like  a 
coffin,  and  has  the  stifling,  unwholesome  odor  of  a 
charnel-house ;  for  every  nook  and  cranny,  from 
floor  to  ceiling,  upon  the  chairs  and  under  the  car- 
pet, clinging  to  the  walls  and  festooned  over  the 
windows  and  doors,  are  the  dead  hopes  of  widows 
and  orphans  mouldering  and  rotting  away.  It  is 
full  of  sighs,  and  damp  with  ever-falling  tears.  The 
pall  of  death  broods  above  it.  I  hate  that  room, 
with  all  its  tyrannical  mortmain  associations.  In  it 
I  have  been  lectured  upon  widow-propriety,  the 
quintessence  of  female  modesty,  the  necessity  of 
possessing  my  unruly  soul  in  patience,  the  beauty  of 
bending  a  stiff  neck  to  the  yoke  of  circumstances, 
the  holiness  of  humble  submission  to  probate  rule, 
etc.,  etc.  It  is  the  only  place  where  I  have  shed 
tears  before  the  mighty ;  but,  thank  God  I  there  was 
only  a  drop  or  two  wrung  out.  That  was  enough  to 
mollify  "his  Honor"  somewhat;  for  there  is  noth- 


168  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

ing  which  an  arbitrary  man  delights  in  so  much  as  to 
see  a  woman  cry,  particularly  a  strong-minded  one. 
I  am  ashamed  to  chronicle  this  momentary  weakness; 
but  I  was  sick  and  needy,  had  no  money  to  buy 
bread,  medicine,  or  gloves,  and  was  threatened  to  be 
sued  by  another  sex  autocrat.  What  marvel  that  I 
wept  ?  It  is  a  marvel  that  I  did  not  flood  the  place, 
and  drown  "  his  Honor  "  in  a  deluge  of  tears. 

But  to  return  to  the  little  long  woman  with  the 
fiery  eye,  the  scant  gown,  and  the  big  shoes,  who  is 
waiting  outside  of  the  judge's  charnel-house  of  with- 
ered hopes ;  outside  of  it,  but  inside  of  the  railing 
which  separates  the  court  from  the  lobby.  The 
Probate  Court  has  a  lobby,  where  sit  the  uninitiated 
and  the  "  great  unwashed."  In  this  lobby,  on  that 
particular  morning,  stood  a  small  specimen  of  hu- 
manity, —  a  kind  of  an  apology  for  a  boy,  but  a  poor 
one.  He  was  a  species  of  the  "  Lost  Heir  "  genus, 
which  suggests  the  "  missing  link  ;  "  hatless,  shoeless, 
and  friendless  he  looked,  uncombed,  dirty,  and  rag- 
ged. What  did  he  want  there?  He  was  not  a 
widow.  He  might  have  been  an  orphan;  and  yet 
that  would  have  been  a  preposterous  supposition, 
for  where  was  his  male  guardian?  Where  was  the 
lynx-eyed  protector  of  his  orphan  rights  against  the 
marauding  propensities  of  his  mother,  —  the  widow 
mother,  eager  to  squander  her  child's  substance  ? 
I  was  interrupted  in  my  cogitations  over  the  small 
boy  by  the  perpendicular  woman,  who  punched  me 
in  my  side  with  her  elbow,  which  was  as  sharp  and 
incisive  as  an  uncapped  foil,  and  said,  — 


169 

"  Are  yez  a  widely,  too,  darlint  ?  and  Lev  they 
tied  up  all  what  j^ersel'  and  yer  ould  man  arnt  in  his 
life?  God  rest  his  sowl !  " 

44  Yes,  all,"  I  replied. 

"Och!  God  help  yez,  thin,"  she  continued,  "for 
it's  gon  intirely,  an'  there's  no  help  for't." 

The  uncovering  of  potential  heads,  and  a  slight 
stir  like  the  ripple  of  a  summer  wind  through  a 
forest,  warned  us  to  be  silent;  for  the  judge  was 
enthroned  upon  his  seat,  which  is  a  soft  cushioned 
chair  —  a  revolver.  The  moment  my  neighbor,  my 
sister-widow-in-affliction,  caught  sight  of  this  mortal- 
immaculate  functionary,  she  nimbly  placed  herself 
in  front  of  the  throne,  and  with  a  hand  on  either  hip, 
and  an  old-fashioned  courtesy,  —  which  must  have 
originated  the  idea  of  a  baby-jumper,  —  she  said  in  a 
piping  falsetto,  — 

44  Jidge  Mzy-rick  "  — 44  7%-rick,"  chimed  in  the 
judge  parenthetically,  putting  a  strong  accent  on  the 
44  My"  and  getting  very  red  in  the  face.  (44  What's 
in  a  name  ?  A  rose  by  any  other  name  would  smell 
as  sweet.")  44  Yer  Honor,"  she  continued,  taking  no 
notice  of  the  momentary  interruption,  44  will  yez  hev 
the  graciousness  to  giv  an  ixthra  illowanze  for  sick- 
ness?" 

Judge.  —  44  Who's  sick  now  ?  " 

Widow.  — 44  Little  Patsy,  y'r  Honor." 

Judge.  —  "  What's  the  matter  with  him  ?  " 

Widow.  —  44  He's  thritened  wid  a  continuenze,  y'r 
Honor." 


170  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

Judge.  —  "A  continuance !  what's  that ?  " 

Widow.  —  "  That's  for  the  docthur  to  tell  whin  he 
lucks  at  'is  tung  and  fales  'is  pullse,  y'r  Honor." 

Judge.  —  "  Give  him  a  dose  of  pikery,  or  salts,  or 
Hull's  physic :  his  blood's  bad." 

Widow.  —  "No,  'taint,  y'r  Honor;  we've  not  ha/» 
the  docthur  yit:  so  plaze  gim  me  the  ixthra  illow- 
anze,  an'  long  life  t'  y'r  Honor  !  " 

Judge.  —  "  But,  my  good  woman,  the  estate  may 
be  insolvent ;  and  in  that  case  I  cannot  grant  a  fur- 
ther allowance,  unless  it  is  an  emergency  of  life  or 
death." 

Widow.  —  "  Niver  throuble  y'rsel',  a  divil  a  bit,  y'r 
Honor,  aboot  the  '  May-bees ; '  for,  hiven  save  y'r 
Honor,  they  niver  flies  this  time  o'  the  year.  So  jist 
gi'm  me  the  ixthra,  so  that  I  may  be  afther  goin'  t' 
me  pure  sick  darlint,  who  is  a-waitin'  on  one  fut  out- 
side o'  the  ralint." 

Judge.  —  "  But,  madam,  I  cannot  do  it :  it  might 
defraud  the  creditors." 

Widow.  —  "  The  credithors,  indade  !  What  hev 
they  to  do  wid  the  nades  uv  me  sick  Patsy  ?  " 

Judge. —  "No,  madam!  I  must  protect  the  in- 
terest of  the  creditors  ;  they  sustain  me  in  office ; 
they  are  rich  and  powerful,  while  you  are  only  a  poor 
miserable  woman,  without  money,  without  influence, 
without  votes,  —  the  three  things  most  needful  for 
judges  to  guard  with  jealous  care." 

Widow.  — "  Oh,  plaze,  Misther  Jidge  dear,  do  give 
me  a  wee  bit  uv  ixthra  illowanze,  that  I  may  be 


"  THRITEN'D    WID  A   CONTINUENZE."  17.1 

goin',  for  shure  Pathvick  would  cum  out  uv  his  grave 
to  plade  wid  yez  if  he  only  knew  how  disthressed  I 
wuz.  Faix,  y'r  Honor,  he  declared  to  ma  wid  'is 
last  breath  a'most  —  God  rest  his  sowl  —  that  he 
owed  no  craythur  on  arth  a  pinny ;  an'  now  Michael 
O'Rooney,  'is  best  buzzom  friend,  taks  the  ruff  frum 
over  me  hed  an'  the  heds  of  the  darlints  that  Path- 
rick  would  hev  spilt  'is  last  dhrap  of  blucl  fur.  An' 
y'r  Honor  calls  this  justice  an'  a  fra  counthry  !  " 

Judge.  —  "  Yes,  madam  :  every  creditor  is  free  to 
demand  his  share  of  the  estate,  if  he  presents  his 
claim,  which  I  must  in  justness  approve." 

Widow.  —  "  And  the  pure  widdy  an'  orphins  is  to 
git  nothin',  bekase,  forsooth,  there  is  no  rale  estate, 
no  house  and  lot,  no  pig  in  the  pen  an'  cow  in  the 
lot  that  belonged  to  Pathrick  an'  ma.  I've  kept 
hous  fur  Pathrick  McGee  fur  twinty  yers,  cuck'd  'is 
males,  washed  *is  close,  an'  nussed  'is  babies;  who 
will  pay  ma  fur  this  woruk?  Will  yer  Honor 
appruve  my  claim  whin  I  brings  it  in  ?  " 

Judge.  —  "  No,  madam.  You  were  supported, 
clothed,  fed,  and  housed  for  your  services.  That 
ought  to  satisfy  any  reasonable  woman." 

Widow.  —  "  That  don't  satisfy  ma,  an'  it  wouldn't 
ha'  satisfied  Pathrick  McGee,  y'r  Honor." 

Judge.  —  "  You  are  difficult  to  please,  madam." 

Widow.  —  "  But,  y'r  Honor,  the  credithors  be  rich  ; 
they  wouldn't  miss  the  wee  mite  to  them,  but  a  big 
mite  to  the  childer  an'  ma  if  it  be  left  to  us  in  pace." 

Judge.  —  "  That  is  irrelevant  to  the  case,  madam. 


172  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

It  matters  not  how  rich  they  may  be,  or  how  poor 
you  are :  the  law  must  take  its  unbending  course. 
There  can  be  no  exceptions  made,  no  mischievous 
precedents  set  up." 

Widow.  —  "  An'  you  sind  me  away  impty-handed, 
whin  I'm  in  sickniss  an'  throuble,  and  little  Patsy 
thritened  wid  a  continuenze,  wid  no  hat  on  'is  hed, 
an'  no  money  to  buy  any  wid ;  wid  no  shoes  fur  'is 
feet,  an'  no  money  to  buy  any  wid ;  wid  no  med'cine 
in  'is  stummick,  an'  no  money  to  buy  any  wid.  Oh, 
jidge !  I  don't  likes  to  be  oncivil  and  spiteful,  but 
may  the  Lord  chastise  you  wid  a  continuenze,  pun- 
ish you  wid  poverty,  and  afflict  you  wid  the  widdy's 
law!" 

The  judge  fairly  bristled  with  rage  at  this  unex- 
pected outburst  from  a  poor  starveling  of  a  woman. 
His  long  head  was  erect ;  his  eyes  glistened  and 
gleamed  through  his  spectacles  like  two  red-hot 
coals  of  fire.  Ah !  what  eyes  to  see  widows !  a 
patient,  patronizing  eye  for  peaceful,  quiescent,  ab- 
negating widows  ;  a  sublime  eye  for  rich,  clinging- 
vine  widows ;  a  stormy,  uncompromising  eye  for 
poverty-stricken  widows ;  a  wrathful,  unforgiving 
eye  for  refractory,  hot-headed  widows,  who  dare  ask 
the  "  whys  "  and  "  wherefores  "  of  things. 

His  mouth  worked  nervously.  Such  a  mouth  to 
talk  to  widows  !  —  a  wise  mouth,  full  to  overflowing 
with  wisdom  ;  a  pompous  mouth,  that  knows  the 
value  and  circumstance  of  ermine  ;  a  decided  mouth, 
that,  when  it  says  no,  means  no,  a  final  "  no,"  which 


"  THRITEWD    WID   A    CONTINUENZE."  173 

admits  of  no  appeal.  In  this  particular  case,  how- 
ever, that  mouth  was  silent ;  but  he  —  the  judge  — 
turned  upon  his  deputy  an  awful  look,  a  thousand 
times  more  eloquent  with  meaning  than  words,  at 
which  the  servitor  placed  himself  alongside  of  the 
little-long-fiery-eyed  widow,  and  whispered  something 
in  her  ear  that  made  her  start  back  with  a  look  of 
blank  horror.  But,  she  instantly  recovered  herself, 
and  turning  slowly  around,  face  door-ward,  she  edged 
herself  out,  between  smiling  lawyers  with  "fat" 
cases,  and  between  grim  lawyers  with  "  lean  "  cases. 
She  went  as  noiselessly  as  the  "  ghosts  came,"  — 
that  shadow  of  a  woman,  a  widow  and  mother,  — 
followed  closely  by  the  mongrel  boy  Patsy,  with  his 
"  thritened  continuenze." 

As  the  last  tatter  disappeared  through  the  door- 
way, the  judge  moved  nervously  upon  his  soft-cush- 
ioned revolving  seat,  turning  first  to  the  right,  then 
to  the  left,  then  faced  (red-faced)  about  front; 
which  was,  I  took  it,  a  dignified  way  of  shaking  him- 
self out,  after  a  disagreeable  wordy  combat.  After 
an  instant's  repose,  to  lay  the  last  ruffled  feather,  he 
exclaimed  in  his  usual  melodious  key,  "  What  case 
comes  up  first  this  moving  ?  "  In  the  momentary 
pause  which  ensued,  I  chipped  in,  and  said,  "  Judge 
Myrick,  how  much  longer  is  the  estate  of  J.  W. 
Stow  to  remain  undistributed?  I  heard  you  give 
orders  six  weeks  ago  to  have  it  distributed  at  once. 
Have  you  no  more  power  in  your  official  position 
than  this  ?  Why  don't  you  enforce  the  carrying  out 


174  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

of  your  orders?  Here  is  this  estate  being  entirely 
consumed  by  the  daily  accumulation  of  interest  on 
approved  claims.  Call  you  this  administering  jus- 
tice, or  fair  dealing  ?  /  dont"  Without  letting  a 
perceptible  ripple  cross  the  benevolent  expression 
which  he  had,»with  no  little  effort,  moulded  into  his 
face  for  the  day,  after  the  first  feminine  tussle  was 
ended,  he  made  answer,  — 

"  Send  your  lawyer,  Mrs.  Stow,  send  your  lawyer. 
This  is  a  legal  question  which  you  do  not  understand. 
Send  your  lawyer."  And  without  waiting  a  reply 
lie  called,  with  a  gustatorial  smack  of  the  lips,  that 
echoed  through  the  court-room  like  a  pistol-crack, 
"  The  case  of  the  widow  Peaceful  is  in  order."  Ah ! 
this  was  one  of  the  "fat "  cases  "  with  money  in  it ;  " 
and  the  widow  was  a  lovely  " clinging-vine  widow" 
covered  with  rare  buds  of  helplessness  and  sweet 
blossoms  of  dependence.  Charming  creature  !  What 
a  relief  to  come  upon  fallow  ground  after  the  stones 
and  thistles!  The  judge  waved  his  majestic  right 
hand  to  me  as  a  final  dismissal.  I  made  my  way 
"fast "  out  of  that  court-room,  fearing  I  might  do 
some  one  bodily  harm  ;  for  what  was  I  to  do  ?  I  had 
no  lawyer,  and  San  Francisqp  lawyers  are  not  to  be 
had  for  the  asking,  not  even  during  leap-year ;  and 
when  I  put  in  a  legal  document  praying  the  court 
and  the  judge  of  the  court  to  show  cause  4fc  why  " 
there  is  no  notice  taken  of  it,  beyond  its  being  filed, 
buried  out  of  sight  and  out  of  mind  forever. 

I  was  out  of  that  just  court,  down  the  stairs,  and 


u  THRITEN'D    WID  A   CONTINUENZE."  175 

in  the  second  hall-way,  ere  I  knew  what  I  was  doing ; 
the  sting  of  outrage,  wrong,  and  injustice  which  I  had 
witnessed  that  morning  had  struck  so  deep.  Hearing 
a  suppressed  sob,  I  turned  quickly  to  learn  what  there 
was  worth  crying  about  outside  of  that  abominable 
court,  and  saw  the  little  long  woman  crouching  in  the 
angle  of  the  wall,  holding  fast  by  one  hand  the  "  thrit- 
ened  continuenze"  while  with  the  other  she  wiped 
her  eyes  (from  which  all  the  fire  was  quenched  by 
her  fast-flowing  tears)  with  one  end  of  the  mangy- 
black  shawl.  Going  up  to  where  she  was,  I  laid  my 
hand  upon  her  arm,  and  said,  "  I  am  so  sorry  for 
you  !  Have  you  really  nothing  left  ?  Has  it  come 
to  that?" 

"  Nothin'  at  all,  at  all,"  she  sobbed.  "  Ye  see,  Path- 
rick  had  two  best  frins,  an'  they  allus  wus  togither 
in  bizniz.  He  got  in  det  to  wun  uv  'em,  an'  munny 
a  long  day  it  tuck  for  Pathrick  an'  ma  to  pay  it ;  but 
'twus  all  paid  at  last,  an'  thin  we  begun  to  put  muny 
in  the  bank  to  by  a  hum  wid,  a  cow  an'  pig,  an'  we 
had  a'most  enuf  whin  the  guid  Lard  tuck  'im  away, 
—  pace  to  'is  ashes,  —  an'  now  'is  two  buzzum  frins 
taks  it  all,  all  the  hard  arnins  and  savins  uv  mysel' 
an'  dear  dead  Pathrick,  an'  laves  ma  an'  the  pure  lee- 
tie  oraythurs  that  Pathrick  luvd  so  much  to  stharve. 

"  Oh,  what  shall  I  do  ?  what  shall  I  do  ?  "  she  con- 
tinued, swaying  her  thin  body  to  and  fro  in  her  bitter 
distress,  "  whin  it  taks  all  ma  time  to  cuck  the  males 
an'  make  the  cloze  of  the  five  uv  us,  let  alone  the 
arnin.  What  kin  I  do  ?  I'm  not  sthrong,  an'  the 


176  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

baby,  the  wee  todlin'  thing,  is  allus  alin.  Oh,  dear  1 
Oh,  dear,  my  pure  heart  will  brake  ! " 

"  If  he  paid  this  debt  which  he  owed  his  friend, 
where  are  the  receipts  for  it  ?  "  I  questioned. 

"  Indade,  mum  !  yez'll  hev  to  ask  the  executioners : 
they  be  the  wuns  that  knows  all  about  it,  an'  they  be 
the  two  frins  apinted  by  his  Honor  to  sarve.  Pathrick 
didn't  lay  out  to  dy  till  the  last  minit,  and  thin  there 
was  no  time  fur  the  makin  uv  wills.  An'  whin  he 
was  under  the  sod  they  —  the  frins  —  cum  an'  ran- 
seck'd  me  hous  and  tuck  all  there  wus  uv  any  vally ; 
an'  it's  themselves  that's  got  all  the  muny  an'  the 
resates  —  more's  the  sorrer  fur  Bridget  MacGee  an* 
her  pure  distitute  darlints !  " 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

HUSBANDS   VS.   PIN-MONEY. 

Audire  est  operce  pretium. 

How  is  it  that  marriage  acts  as  such  an  astringent 
upon  purse-strings?  In  many  cases  they  seem  to 
have  got  so  closely  entangled  in  the  hymeneal  knot 
that  they  never  have  been  set  free,  but  have  re- 
mained in  this  vexed  and  vexatious  condition  during 
the  entire  marriage  probation. 

During  courtship  Charles  Augustus's  money  flows 
like  clear  water  at  high  tide  ;  but  there  is  a  per- 
ceptible ebb  at  the  first  quarter  of  the  honeymoon, 
and  it  keeps  at  low  tide  ever  afterwards.  The  hus- 
band provides  no  stated  income  for  the  wife,  and 
when  she  has  any  money  she  has  to  ask  for  it  like 
a  child.  At  the  time  of  solicitation  there  may  not 
be  the  required  sum  in  the  purse-carrier's  pocket, 
and  that  will  necessitate  another  humiliating  appeal 
ere  the  money  is  obtained.  It  is  a  very  hard  thing 
for  a  young  wife  —  or  an  old  one,  as  to  that  matter  — 
to  beg  for  money  —  that  which  she  feels  is  hers  by 
right.  For  does  not  the  husband  pledge  her  at  the 
altar,  "  With  all  my  worldly  goods  I  thee  endow  "  ? 

177 


178  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

He  may  think  that  "  worldly  goods  "  do  not  include 
money.  Many  husbands  act  upon  this  principle  all 
their  lives.  I  venture  to  assert  that  there  are  more 
heart-aches,  in  the  marriage  relation,  over  this  one 
question  of  pin-money  than  any  other. 

Most  husbands  are  fashioned  in  the  same  mould 
as  Caudle:  if  they  lose  money  at  cards,  or  upon  a 
bet  on  their  favorite  horse  at  the  races,  or  in  some 
more  disreputable  way,  the  wife  has  to  do  penance 
for  their  sins  by  being  cut  down  in  her  pin-money. 
If  she  is  keeping  house,  the  cupboard  must  pay  for 
the  masculine  folly  of  an  hour,  or  a  day,  as  the  case 
may  be.  Besides,  the  poor  wife  —  like  Mrs.  Caudle 
number  two — usually  gets  a  lesson  thrown  in,  on 
the  sin  of  wastefulness,  and  the  necessity  of  hoard- 
ing up  against  a  rainy  day  or  a  bad  day  of  any  sort, 
instead  of  spending  money  for  perishable  gewgaws, 
such  as  silks,  velvets,  and  loves  of  bonnets ;  while  he, 
the  righteous  judge,  puffs  his  royal  Havana,  and 
thinks  of  the  sumptuous  TwaZe-banquet  ordered,  at  his 
expense,  at  the  Maison  Dorge,  at  fifty  or  a  hundred 
dollars  the  cover,  for  himself  and  a  few  of  his  dear 
friends,  his  jovial  pot-house  companions,  — 

("  O,  Willie  brewed  a  peck  o'  maut, 
And  Rob  and  Allen  came  to  see: 
Three  blither  hearts,  that  leelang  night, 
Ye  wad  na  find  in  Christendie  ") 

while  the  wife  mopes  at  home,  new-lining  his  coat- 
sleeves,  and  sewing  on  shirt-buttons.  Men  never 
waste  any  money.  Oh,  no  !  '  Tis  the  weaker  vessel 


HUC2ANDS   VS.   PIN-MONET.  179 

which  has  a  leak  that  no  tinkering  seems  to  stop. 
What  a  pity  it  is,  that  it  is  so !  for  all  men  declare 
mentally,  if  not  orally,  with  the  above-mentioned 
martyr,  "that  it  is  a  woman's  place  to  save, — par- 
ticularly a  woman's  place  —  to  save.  Women  "  — 
not  men  —  "  were  designed  for  it.  Economy  is  one 
of  the  noblest  virtues  bound  up  with  matrimony." 
However,  as  it  is,  and  as  it  has  been  from  the  begin- 
ning, it  is  a  misshapen,  one-sided  bundle,  because 
the  economy  is  expected  to  be  all  on  one  side,  —  the 
wife's  side.  This  throws  every  thing  out  of  balance, 
and  consequently  there  is  eternal  friction  and  jarring 
where,  were  it  otherwise,  all  might  be  harmony  and 
long  life. 

I  believe  that  we  should  all  live  out  our  allotted 
time  —  a  hundred  years  —  on  earth,  and  most  women 
would,  if  it  were  not  for  this  perpetual,  intestine, 
hearthstone  warfare  about  pin-money.  This  old, 
hereditary,  matrimonial  cancer  is  what  has  eaten  out 
the  hearts  of  thousands  of  wives  since  the  advent  of 
fig-leaves. 

Custom  and  law,  for  the  most  part,  put  all  the 
money  of  the  marriage-firm  in  the  hands  of  the  hus- 
band. The  wife  lives  as  an  ignoble  dependent.  She 
has  only  what  is  given  her,  cheerfully  or  grudgingly, 
as  the  case  may  be,  —  probably  the  latter,  —  after 
asking  for  it.  But  she  inevitably  learns  to  hate  her 
position,  and  to  grow  away  from  the  man  wjio  only 
gives  the  money  she  has  richly  earned,  when  he  is 
asked  for  it.  This  is  certain  to  create  discontent. 


180  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

and  a  sense  of  humiliation ;  and  that  most  rare  and 
beautiful  thing,  particularly  in  wedlock,  trust  and 
affection,  is  gradually  lost  sight  of,  while  scheming 
calculation  too  often  takes  its  place. 

The  old,  moss-grown  absurdity,  that  wives  earn  no 
money,  is  yet  cherished  in  the  hearts  of  husbands, 
and  will  continue  to  be  until  women  are  emancipated 
from  political  bondage.  They  look  upon  wives  as 
dependents  upon  their  bounty ;  and  dependents  are 
always  unfortunate.  They  belong  to  the  unfortu- 
nate class. 

"  Before  marriage,  a  woman's  income  flows  into 
her  own  pocket ;  after,  into  that  of  the  man  she 
marries.  She  may  have  earned  it  by  teaching  a 
few  hours  a  day,  and  she  had  all  the  rest  of  her  time 
for  study  and  pleasure ;  but  after  marriage  all  her 
time  is  consumed  in  making  a  pleasant  home.  She 
has  neither  money  nor  leisure ;  and  she  feels  just  like 
the  pauper  and  beggar  she  is,  and  turns  a  wistful, 
retrospective  glance  back  to  the  old  happy  days  ere 
she  yoked  herself  to  humiliation  and  dependence." 

Is  it  surprising  that  she  grows  old  and  faded  be- 
fore her  prime  ?  When  I  hear  a  man  boasting  that 
he  has  had  three  or  four  wives,  I  feel  to  a  certainty 
that  chronic  pin-money  has  been  a  constant  guest  in 
his  household.  Those  wives  were  all  carried  off  by 
the  continuous  or  epidemic  plague  of  pin-money. 
They  died  of  pin-money  !  It  should  be  engraven 
upon  the  headstone  of  each:  Number  one,  two,  or 
three,  wives  of  Jonathan  Grubb,  Esq. ;  died  of  pin- 
money.  Requiescat  in  pace. 


HUSBANDS   VS.  PIN-MONET.  181 

Life  ought  to  be  sweet  and  enjoyable  to  every  one. 
It  is  our  duty  to  see  to  it  that  it  is  made  to  flow 
healthfully  forward,  up  into  the  nineties  at  least. 
The  lower  species  of  the  animal  kingdom  live  to  the 
age  of  five  times  the  period  of  their  growth.  The 
same  law  would  fix  man's  allotted  pilgrimage  to  be  a 
hundred  years.  From  recent  statistics,  it  would 
seem  that  we  are  yet  to  enjoy  our  full  complement 
of  decades  ;  women  in  particular  —  those  that  have 
lived  natural  and  temperate  lives,  and  have  not  been 
subjected  to  a  daily  crucifixion  for  the  want  of  pin- 
money.  When  woman  is  properly  educated,  and 
thoroughly  understands  the  wonderfulty  beautiful 
mechanism  of  the  human  form  divine,  she  will  no 
longer  torture  it  out  of  all  proportions  for  effect. 
And  such  an  effect !  a  hideous  deformity  that  pains 
the  eye  of  all  cultivated  and  aesthetic  taste,  stifles 
health  in  the  germ,  dams  its  bounding  current  at  its 
source.  Educate  her  to  aspire  to  be  something 
above  the  mere  physical  plaything  of  man,  and  she 
will  cease  to  incase  her  body  in  a  strait-jacket,  her 
feet  in  a  vice,  and  her  soul  in  vapidity. 

What  is  the  offering  which  the  average  man  brings 
to  a  woman  before  marriage?  A  little  chalk-and- 
water  sentiment,  administered  with  a  good  deal  of 
flattery  of  this  sort :  "  What  a  dear  little  foot  you've 
got!  —  sure  sign  of  good  blood  (most  likely  every 
toe  has  a  corn  and  every  joint  a  bunion,  where  the 
good  blood  makes  a  telling  assertion),  and  such 
lovely  snowflake  hands !  I  can  always  tell  a  genu- 


182  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

t 

ine  lady  by  the  size  and  fit  of  her  glove.  What 
charming  eyes,  complexion,  and  teeth  like  pearls ! 
(hope  they're  not  false),  and  hair,  if  black,  that  puts 
to  shame  the  raven's  wing;  if  tawny,  it  is  spun 
gold  —  a  fleece  of  morning  light ;  if  red,  it  is  be- 
witchingly  auburn,  Venetian-bronze,  incomparably 
beautiful."  And  then  she  sings  like  an  angel  (as 
though  a  man  could  tell  how  an  angel  sings),  and 
waltzes  like  a  sylph  (who  ever  saw  a  sylph  waltz  ?). 

He  never  sounds  the  real  depths  of  her  heart,  and 
never  asks  what  there  is  hidden  in  the  more  subtle 
chambers  of  the  brain.  These  are  unexplored 
regions  before  marriage,  and  after  there  is  no  time 
for  such  things.  He  may  learn  too  late,  however, 
that  snowflake  hands  are  not  the  most  useful  hands, 
that  they  are  often  unhandy  hands. 

What  if  she  does  prefer  the  opera,  salon,  or  rout, 
to  her  own  dull  hearth  ?  Has  she  not  been  educated 
for  that?  Educate  a  boy  at  the  faro-table,  and 
then  punish  him  for  gambling.  Consistency  is  a  rare 
jewel ! 

Men  create  and  multiply  lucrative  offices,  and 
elect  men  to  fill  them  whose  salaries  in  part  come 
directly  and  indirectly  from  the  unrepresented  and 
proscribed  class ;  and,  if  there  is  a  dissenting  voice 
raised,  then  the  daring  ones  are  called  naughty 
names,  and  dubbed  Amazonian  agitators,  hybridous 
invaders  of  masculine  territory,  etc.,  etc. 

Give  woman  the  same  free  start  in  life  ere  you 
cast  one  stone,  O  most  wise,  upright  man!  Put 


HUSBANDS    VS.   PIN-MONEY.  183 

yourself  in  her  place  ere  you  condemn  wholesale ; 
before  you  declare  that  we  are  trying  to  be  men, 
while  born  women.  Therein,  most  dearly  beloved 
brethren,  you  err.  What  right  have  you  to  pass 
judgment?  You  have,  from  the  beginning,  drawn 
life  from  first  principles  ;  you  have  not  been  com- 
pelled to  be  content  with  a  parasitic  growth,  as 
women  have ;  and  now  that  they  are  outgrowing  the 
slavishness  of  ignoble  dependence,  are  you  to  hurl 
them  back  to  the  old  standpoint  by  sarcasm,  innuen- 
does, and  scorn  ?  No,  no !  the  good  time  coming  will 
secure  pin-money  without  begging  for  it. 

When  a  wife's  education  and  political  position  will 
warrant,  she  will  be  likely  to  say  to  the  husband, 
"  If  you  furnish  me  with  the  necessary  amount  of 
pin-money,  very  well :  if  not,  I  shall  be  obliged  to 
earn  it."  And  she  will  be  able  to  earn  it.  At  that 
time  all  the  lucrative  business  in  the  world  will  not 
be  absorbed  by  men.  Cities,  states,  and  nation  will 
have  found  out  that  women  are  quite  as  capable, 
efficient,  and  honest  public  servants  as  men.  Then 
women  will  not  be  forced  into  the  trade  of  prostitu- 
tion for  a  livelihood,  "  dealing  in  shame  for  a  morsel 
of  bread." 

Protection  and  prohibition  have  walked  hand  in 
hand  long  enough.  Give  woman  an  equal  footing 
before  the  laws  made  by  man,  and  God's  laws  will 
adjust  themselves  accordingly.  They  have  always, 
when  unperverted,  been  in  equipoise,  and  will  con- 
tinue to  remain  so.  Woman  will  retain  her  attri- 


184  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

butes,  as  woman,  without  any  wish  or  desire  to 
exchange  her  finer  nature  for  that  of  the  coarser 
man. 

The  most  of  husbands  have  yet  to  learn  that  the 
wife  requires  a  fixed  income,  the  same  as  the  house- 
maid, hostler,  scullion,  and  boot-black,  and  that  if 
she  is  denied  this  right  she  is  an  unhappy  and  dis- 
contented wife.  I  know  wives  in  San  Francisco 
that  have  the  most  meagre  sums  grudgingly  doled 
out  to  them  for  the  payment  of  board  or  the  house- 
hold expenses,  and  out  of  this  craven  pittance  they 
have  to  manage  to  clothe  themselves  as  best  they 
may.  Such  wives  are  not  happy  wives,  nor  con- 
tented with  their  lot,  and  who  would  be  ?  They  are 
careful,  economical  housekeepers ;  and  yet,  for  all 
their  painstaking,  they  get  no  thanks,  no  pay,  no 
appreciation.  They  are  mentally  and  physically 
crushed  by  such  thankless  servitude,  and  the  heavy, 
galling  chains  that  bind  them  to  this  Promethean 
rock.  The  vulture  of  discontent  is  at  their  vitals. 
What  wonder  that  they  grow  narrow  and  prema- 
turely old,  in  such  a  pinching,  grinding  life,  with  no 
door  of  escape  ?  Driven  to  desperation,  should  they 
even  attempt  to  obtain  a  situation  where  they  could 
earn  money,  they  are  refused  with  scorn,  and  the 
impertinent  query,  "  What  do  you  mean?  Your 
husband  is  a  man  of  means  and  position  in  the  com- 
munity ;  he  would  feel  it  an  everlasting  disgrace  to 
have  his  wife  enter  an  office  to  earn  money."  But 
he  does  not  feel  it  an  "  everlasting  disgrace  "  to  have 


HUSBANDS    VS.  PIN-MONKY.  IF  5 

her  existence  clouded,  imbittered,  and  shortened  b}' 
the  sad  consciousness  that  she  is  but  a  cipher  to  the 
integral  figure,  —  the  husband,  —  and  that  every  dol- 
lar she  has  to  clothe  herself  with  must  be  pinched 
out  of  the  servants'  hire  and  butcher's  bill  in  two-bit 
pieces.  This  style  of  husband  —  to  keep  himself  in 
equilibrium,  evidently  —  is  generally  most  prodigal 
of  money  outside  of  his  own  hearthstone.  He  wears 
the  finest  cloth,  and  latest  cut ;  and  neighbors  won- 
der how  he  happened  to  marry  such  a  commonplace- 
looking  woman  for  a  wife,  who  has  no  taste  in  dress ; 
for  dress,  to  superficial  observers,  oft  makes  the  woman 
as  well  as  the  man.  He  refuses  her  a  stated  income, 
because  it  would  place  her  on  the  same  plane  as  a 
mistress.  Mistresses  and  servants  enjoy  stated  in- 
comes—  not  wives".  Wifehood  is  a  continuous  ap- 
prenticeship for  board  and  clothes ;  and  the  getting 
of  the  latter  is  a  never-ceasing  bone  of  contention,  — 
a  consuming  matrimonial  fire  that  never  lacks  fuel. 

When  the  wife  of  one  of  these  money  despots  dies 
of  chronic  pin-money,  she  has  a  sumptuous  coffin 
and  a  grand  funeral,  with  a  free  ride  for  all  —  the 
first  expensive  thing  for  her  exclusive  benefit  since 
her  marriage.  Then  all  the  anxious  matable  women 
stand  on  tiptoe  of  expectation,  and  moralize  over 
the  sad  and  lonely  condition  of  Mr.  Save-at-home. 
They  are  all  ready  to  step  into  the  vacant  shoes  of 
wife  number  one.  But  when  some  doll-faced,  lily- 
fingered  miss  in  her  teens  comes  into  possession, 
the  husband's  name  changes  to  Mr.  Spend-at-home  ; 


186  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

and  then  the  money  flies,  and  there  is  no  help  for  it. 
Wife  number  two,  like  a  sensible  woman,  runs  up 
bills,  and  leaves  them  to  be  collected,  when  and  ln>\v 
she  cares  not ;  and  there  is  no  use  in  Caudle-lectur- 
ing her.  She  is  totally  indifferent  and  impervious  to 
impending  ruin.  Didn't  she  marry  the  ancient  and 
frisky  fossil  for  pin-money,  and  nothing  else  ?  Love 
him  !  the  stupid  bundle  of  conceit,  old  enough  to  be 
her  father,  and  ugly  enough  to  be  her  grandfather  ;  an 
old  boy  who  apes  younger  men,  and  mistakes  the  pre- 
monitory twinges  of  gout  and  rheumatism  for  youth- 
ful fire  in  the  blood ;  who  ambles  through  the  giddy 
mazes  of  the  ball-room  like  an  animated  skeleton  in 
a  white  vest  and  claw-hammer  !  Such  specimens  of 
humanity  are  always  boys.  You  can  always  pick 
them  out  wherever  you  find  them.  They  are  filled 
top-full  of  folly,  vanity,  and  all  manner  of  conceit. 
They  imagine  themselves  the  centre  of  the  universe 
wherein  they  dwell,  —  the  observed  of  all  observers. 
Your  old  boy  is  generally  a  society  boy,  —  a  weak 
imitation  of  a  Beau  Brummel.  He  wears  a  wig,  or 
parts  his  sparse  and  waning  growth  of  back-hair  in 
the  middle,  combing  it  into  a  scant  fringe  for  tin; 
embellishment  of  each  ear,  which  gives  to  his  coun- 
tenance a  fierce  and  asinine  expression  —  particularly 
when  he  sports  a  Napoleonic  moustache,  and  goes 
forth  in  search  of  fresh  prey  to  conquer.  Marriage 
with  such  "  boys  "  is  simply  a  convenience.  They 
are  too  mean  and  penurious  to  pay  a  housekeeper, 
button-fastener,  and  stocking-mender,  a  salary :  so 


HUSBANDS   VS.   PIN-MONEY.  187 

they  marry  the  trinity,  and  become  masters  of  the 
situation,  and  their  hearts — if  they  have  any,  which 
is  doubtful  —  remain  in  the  highlands. 

Your  old  boy  is  to  be  found  in  full  feather  at  mat- 
inees, and,  if  his  pliant  conscience  takes  on  a  serious 
complexion,  in  church  festivals  and  sabbath-school 
conventions.  He  is  to  be  met  with  in  every  walk  of 
life.  He  roams  at  will,  fancy-free.  The  silken 
bonds  impose  no  restraint  upon  him. 

When  such  an  addle-pate  possesses  the  requisite 
amount  of  means,  he  is  sent  to  the  legislature,  to 
make  wicked  and  oppressive  laws  to  govern  intelli- 
gent women  (money,  not  brains,  too  often  make 
the  laws)  ;  and  the  wife  is  left  at  home,  to  keep  the 
fire-dogs  bright,  and  the  hearth  swept  and  garnished, 
while  his  time  is  divided,  when  out  of  the  "  Cham- 
ber," between  fast  horses  and  faster  women. 

There  has  been  blown  a  clarion  blast  from  the  four 
quarters  of  the  globe,  about  the  folly  and  extrava- 
gance of  feather-brained  women.  It  is  penned  and 
shouted  from  every  desk  and  rostrum  in  the  land. 
Pharisaical  men  have  croaked  themselves  hoarse  on 
the  subject.  It  is  high  time  the  tables  were  turned, 
and  the  follies  of  the  dominant  sex  as  thoroughly 
ventilated. 

Until  women  are  admitted  to  the  highest  educa- 
tional institutions  in  the  land,  on  an  equality  with 
men,  and  until  they  have  a  like  position  in  Church 
and  State,  I  will  not  blame  any  one  of  them  for  all 
manner  of  folly,  extravagance,  or  sin.  I  have  en- 


i88  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

tered  the  field  as  a  champion  for  my  sex,  in  whatever 
circumstances  they  may  be  placed,  high  or  low,  rich 
or  poor,  pure  or  defiled.  They  all  belong  to  the  great 
oppressed  sisterhood  of  this  nation  aiid  of  the  world 
at  large.  I  take  my  stand  fearlessly,  and  will  lead 
where  any  will  dare  to  follow,  or  follow  where  any  will 
dare  to  lead ;  and  I  will  not  lay  aside  my  armor  or 
sheathe  the  sword  till  this  wrong  is  righted.  I  come 
not  with  a  "  soothing  poultice "  for  this  gangrene 
ulcer,  but  with  the  probe  which  reaches  the  core 
hidden  beneath  proud  flesh,  —  very  proud  flesh  !  I 
know  not  which  is  the  lower  down  in  the  scale  of 
morals,  in  the  two  extremes  of  society,  fashionable 
women,  or  courtesans.  Each  lead  a  sensuous,  volujH 
tuous,  worthless  life  ;  and  at  the  harvest  of  death  — 
in  either  case — there  is  nothing  left  but  chaff  and 
stubble.  They  appear  to  stand,  in  the  economy  of 
Nature,  at  opposite  ends  of  the  same  stick.  "  Dr. 
dissipation,  and  flirting  make  up  the  questionable  lines 
which  enclose  the  life  of  the  fashionable  woman,  and 
which  enclose  nothing  useful,  nothing  good,  nothing 
deep  or  true  or  holy." 

What  is  wrong  ?  Who  is  to  blame  ?  Who  will 
rise  up  in  judgment  against  them  ?  Who  will  cast 
the  first  stone?  The  ambitious  fashionable  woman 
is  a  being  of  untiring  energy,  else  she  could  never 
accomplish  what  she  does.  And,  were  this  energy 
diverted  into  healthful  and  productive  channels,  what 
a  source  of  happiness  and  wealth  would  flow  from  it 
into  the  world's  treasury,  created  by  her  active  brain 
and  artistic  fingers ! 


HUSBANDS    VS.   PIN-MONEY.  189 

There  are  rare  specimens  of  this  class  of  graceful 
producers  to  be  met  with  everywhere  in  society,  and 
their  numbers  are  daily  increasing  —  women  who 
dare  to  be  ignorant  in  many  things,  in  order  to  be 
potential  in  one  or  two.  Said  a  proud  husband  of 
one  of  these  to  me,  44  My  wife  paints  and  practises 
from  eight  o'clock  A.M.  till  ten  P.M.,  unless  inter- 
rupted by  the  exigencies  of  housekeeping  or  society." 
44  And  how  do  you  like  being  tied  to  such  a  business- 
woman?" I  inquired.  44  Oh,"  he  quickly  replied, 
44 1  glory  in  her  ambition  !  "  44  So  do  I,"  I  contin- 
ued :  44  she  is  one  of  the  successful  pioneers  in  work 
for  women,  on  a  higher  plane  than  the  scrub-brush 
and  sewing-machine." 

Such  women  are  the  beacon-lights  to  timid  feet : 
they  enrich  and  adorn  the  times  in  which  they  live, 
by  the  precept  of  example,  and  glorify  God  by  the 
use  of  the  talent  he  has  given  them.  They  have  not 
despised  the  day  of  small  things,  the  patient  study 
and  persistent  drill,  which  brings  its  own  exceeding 
great  reward.  They  have  dug  deep,  and  laid  the 
foundations  of  their  individuality  upon  a  rock  basis, 
and  from  this  rises  the  structure  of  beautiful  and 
symmetrical  character  ;  and  character  is  destiny. 

Create  a  sentiment,  by  properly  educating  women, 
that  it  is  more  honorable  to  labor  at  something  that 
produces  valuable  results  than  to  be  idle,  and  they 
will  no  longer  sell  themselves,  for  a  permanent  home, 
to  one  man  whom  they  do  not  love,  or  to  the  pro- 
miscuous throng  for  the  transient  and  evanescent 
abode  of  the  courtesan. 


OF 
UlTI7BESITrj 


190 


PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 


Women  are  educated  for  dolls  and  spare-hours 
playthings ;  and  then  because  they  are  apt  scholars 
—  as  they  are  pretty  sure  to  be  —  they  are  blamed 
for  being  proficient  in  the  art  of  doll-pleasures.  The 
old  trite  saying,  "  Just  as  the  twig  is  bent  the  tree's 
inclined,"  is  unheeded. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

PHILISTINES   VS.   WIDOWS. 
Vce  victis. 

AND  behold  the  Philistines  —  the  great  and  im- 
pregnable army  of  Litigites,  whose  chief  is  the  high 
and  mighty  Myrick  the  Just  —  pitched  their  tents 
over  against  San  Francisco  ;  a  city  that  goes  up  to 
the  sea  on  the  west,  and  down  to  the  bay  on  the 
east ;  a  city  of  great  renown,  far  famed  for  its  pala- 
tial residences,  its  hospitality,  its  magnificent  hotels, 
its  Mint,  its  .City-hall  expectations,  and  its  Second- 
street  Bridge.  Nevertheless  it  has  its  fogs,  its 
damps,  its  winds,  its  Chinese  odors,  and  municipal 
government.  And  they,  the  host  of  Litigites,  sent 
forth  a  proclamation  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land,  from  the  borders  of  San  Fran- 
tisco  to  Oakland,  from  Oakland  to  Red  Dog,  from 
Red  Dog  to  Youbedam,  from  Youbedam  to  Whisky 
Station,  from  Whisky  Station  to  Cut-Throat  Gulch  ; 
and  the  proclamation  had  the  great  seal  of  Myrick 
the  Just  upon  it ;  arid  the  proclamation  read  thus : 
"  Be  it  enacted  that  all  widows  be  despoiled  of  their 
substance,  their  houses,  their  lands,  their  cattle, 

191 


192  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

their  minor  children,  and  all  they  possess  of  value 
of  worldly  goods,  in  order  to  enrich  the  Court  of 
Myrick  the  Just,  the  City  Treasury,  and  the  great 
army  of  Litigites,  the  whole  tribe  of  Creditorites,  the 
half-tribe  of  Myrick  the  Just,  the  Jiggerites,  and 
the  quarter-tribe  of  Myrick  the  Just,  the  Posterites ; 
and  let  every  widow  that  rebels  and  kicks  against  this 
proclamation  have  a  millstone  hung  about  her  neck, 
and  let  her  be  cast  into  the  midst  of  the  sea." 

And  thereupon  the  widows  lifted  up  their  voices, 
with  an  exceeding  great  cry  of  wailing  and  lamen- 
tation, saying,  "  Woe  to  us !  Who  shall  deliver  us 
from  the  hand  of  this  mighty  high  priest,  Myrick 
the  Just,  and  his  twelve  tribes  of  Litigites  and 
Creditorites  ?  These  be  the  plagues  that  afflict 
widows  throughout  all  the  land  of  Freedom.  These 
be  the  cunning  foxes  that  spoil  the  vines." 

And  the  wailing  widows  pitched  their  tents  over 
against  Despair,  in  the  Valley  of  Desolation.  And  all 
the  region  round  about  was  watered  by  the  river 
Despair  and  the  Fountain  and  Torrent  of  Tears.  The 
fountain  and  torrent  never  ran  dry  by  day  or  by 
night,  for  they  were  perpetually  replenished  by  the 
tears  of  the  widows  and  orphans,  which  are  con- 
tinually falling  like  rain  because  of  the  persecutions 
of  the  Philistines  and  their  chief,  Myrick  the  Just. 
And  over  against  the  Torrent  of  Tears  was  the  Field  of 
Sighs,  which  bordered  upon  the  Valley  of  Desolation. 

And  there  was  a  perpetual  war  waged  by  the  "  fat 
and  lean  "  Philistines  of  the  city  of  San  Francisco, 


PHILISTINES   VS.    WIDOWS.  193 

against  the  widows  whose  tents  were  pitched  over 
against  Despair,  in  the  Valley  of  Desolation,  which 
was  by  the  Field  of  Sighs  and  the  Torrent  of  Tears. 

And  the  twelve  tribes  of  Myrick  the  Just  —  the 
Samites,  the  Eddites,  the  Cobboreans,  the  Haightites, 
the  Johnoreans,  the  Creditorites,  and  the  half-tribe 
of  Myrick  the  Just,  the  Jiggerites,  and  the  remainder 
of  the  whole  tribes  of  Myrick  the  Just,  which  went 
to  make  up  the  great  body  of  Litigites  which  com- 
posed the  twelve  tribes  of  Myrick  the  Just — waxed 
fat  on  the  spoils  of  the  slain.  For  Death,  with  sword, 
rire,  and  pestilence,  was  continually  swooping  down 
upon  the  goodly  city  of  San  Francisco,  and  carrying 
off  the  husbands  and  fathers  out  of  their  beautiful 
homes,  which  homes  at  once  became  the  prey  of  the 
spoilers;  and  the  widows  and  orphans  were  driven 
forth  naked,  at  the  point  of  the  two-edged  sword  of 
the  law,  out  of  their  earthly  paradise  into  the  Valley 
and  Shadow  of  Desolation,  which  valley  did  lie  along- 
side the  Field  of  Sighs. 

And,  behold,  in  those  days  it  came  to  pass  that  one 
Joseph  was  gathered  to  his  last  home,  and  slept  with 
his  fathers  ;  and  his  wife  Lizzie  was  in  a  far  country 
beyond  the  sea.  And  this  wife  Lizzie  belonged  to 
the  tribe  Strong-minded.  As  soon  as  Joseph  was 
buried  out  of  sight,  in  Lone  Mountain  —  the  burial- 
place  of  the  dead  of  San  Francisco  —  lo,  and  behold  ! 
the  bosom  friends  of  Joseph  gathered  themselves  to- 
gether, and  parted  his  garments.  They  cast  lots 
between  them  before  the  court  of  Myrick  the  J  ust  in 


194  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

San  Francisco,  and  divided  the  possessions  of  Joseph 
into  many  parts,  —  to  the  Creditorites  a  fiftieth  part ; 
to  the  Litigites  a  thirtieth  part ;  to  the  great  high 
priest,  Myrick  the  Just,  a  tenth  part ;  and  to  the 
Posterites,  the  Pressites,  and  the  Auctioneerites  the 
remainder. 

And  the  Executorites  despised  the  absent  widow, 
the  widow  belonging  to  the  tribe  Strong-minded ; 
and  they  wagged  their  heads,  and  said,  "  We  will 
publish,  in  the  paper  called  4  Alta,'  that  we  sent 
her  a  despatch  telling  her  of  the  death  of  her  hus- 
band Joseph,  and  also  of  the  mailing  of  a  notice 
to  the  said  Lizzie,  of  the  tribe  Strong-minded,  — 
who  was  absent  in  a  far  country,  in  the  city  called 
Geneva,  at  the  time' of  the  death  of  the  said  Joseph, 
—  of  the  proving  of  his  will ; "  all  of  which  the 
said  Lizzie,  of  the  tribe  Strong-minded,  never  re- 
ceived, because  the  postal  system  is  "  bad  "  in  the 
country  called  France,  and  the  country  alongside, 
called  Switzerland,  in  which  is  situate  the  city 
called  Geneva.  After  many  weeks,  the  widow 
Lizzie  heard  of  the  death  of  her  husband  Joseph, 
through  a  letter  written  by  her  sister  called  Gertie. 
Then  the  widow  —  the  strong-minded  Lizzie — rose 
up  and  fled  out  of  the  far  country,  and  travelled  by 
land  and  by  sea,  by  day  and  by  night,  until  sin- 
came  to  the  city  by  the  bay,  the  city  of  San  Fran- 
cisco, even  to  the  inner  court  of  Myrick  the  Just ; 
and  said  she  to  him,  "  Great  and  upright  judge, 
behold,  mine  enemies  have  gotten  possession  of  all 


PHILISTINES    VS.    WIDOWS.  195 

my  goods,  the  things  that  were  mine  and  the  things 
that  were  Joseph's  —  who  is  resting  from  his  labors, 
in  Lone  Mountain.  Give  me  that  which  belongeth 
unto  me.  What  right  have  these  men  to  sit  in 
judgment  over  my  estate?  They  are  usurpers  — 
and  I  pray  you,  mighty  judge  of  the  quick  and  the 
will  of  the  dead,  to  cast  them  out  from  their  ill-got- 
ten power." 

Then  Myrick  the  Just  opened  his  mouth,  and 
spake  thus  to  the  widow  of  Joseph  :  "  If  thou  be  a 
strong-minded  woman,  as  I  hear  thou  art,  go  up  with 
the  tribe  of  the  strong-minded  sisterhood,  and  storm 
the  walls  of  the  city  of  Sacramento,  which  city  lieth 
upon  the  banks  of  the  great  river  which  hath  its 
tail  in  the  mountains,  its  body  in  the  valleys,  and  its 
mouth  in  the  bay.  Go  up  and  besiege  the  temple  in 
which  assembleth  the  chosen  and  anointed  of  the 
people,  the  two  branches  of  Legislature  called  and 
known  throughout  the  land  as  Senate  and  Repre- 
sentative. They  alone  are  to  blame.  We  are  weak, 
and  they  are  mighty.  Go  up,  thou  strong-minded, 
and  besiege  their  outer  walls,  and  pull  down  their 
stronghold,  and  compel  them  to  deal  justly  with 
widows  and  the  female  tribe  4  Strong-minded.' " 

Thereupon  the  widow  of  Joseph  made  answer,  and 
said  unto  Myrick  the  Just:  "Behold,  O  mighty 
judge,  we  cannot  go  up  to  Sacramento;  for  the  Phi- 
listines have  despoiled  us  of  our  lands,  our  houses, 
our  cattle,  and  our  poultry.  We  have  no  money 
wherewithal  to  buy  beautiful  apparel  to  please  the 


196  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

eye  of  those  lawgivers,  no  frankincense  and  myrrh  to 
tickle  their  nostrils,  no  shekels  of  gold  nor  shekels  of 
silver  to  purchase  their  friendship  ;  without  which  we 
are  as  stubble  before  the  flame.  A  look  consumes  us. 
Besides,  O  mighty  judge !  we  have  no  money  nor 
lands  to  pay  the  tribe  of  Charleyites  for  the  privilege 
of  riding  in  their  chariots  of  wood  and  iron.  Sacra- 
mento is  a  far  city.  We  cannot  walk  ;  for  our 
sandals  are  worn,  our  staff  broken,  and  ourselves 
growing  old  and  gray,  and  stiff-jointed  as  well  as 
stiff-necked." 

Then  Myrick  the  Just  bade  the  widow  of  Joseph 
depart  in  peace,  and  trouble  him  no  more  — forever. 

Now,  it  came  to  pass  that  the  widow  of  Joseph 
waxed  very  wroth  at  this,  for  she  had  no  money  to 
buy  meal  and  oil,  and  San  Francisco  ravens  had  for- 
gotten their  cunning  ;  and  she  said,  as  she  made  good 
her  escape  out  of  the  Inner  Court,  "  We'll  see  if 
there's  a  God  in  Israel ; "  and  she  went  forth,  and 
prayed  one  Albert,  a  Philistine,  to  come  up  to  battle 
with  her.  But  lo,  and  behold !  when  they  came 
before  the  court  of  Myrick  the  Just,  the  friends  of 
Joseph,  "  a  great  cloud  of  witnesses,"  were  brought 
up  out  of  the  highways,  byways,  and  hedges,  to 
testify  that  Joseph  died  a  pauper,  or  rather  that  all 
his  possessions  went  by  natural  entail  to  his  bosom 
friends.  There  was  the  high  priest  Horatio,  the 
ironmonger  Ira,  the  Philistine  Smut,  the  quill-driver 
Bell,  t/ie  porter  Dick,  the  baby-tender  Hardy,  and 
the  boot-black  Pil.  And  they  all  swore  as  with  one 


PHILISTINES    VS.    WIDOWS.  197 

voice,  and  the  voice  was  like  unto  the  voice'  of  the 
beast  that  one  Balaam  rode.     And  they  said,  — 

"  In  life  our  brother  Joseph  had  an  ever-open 
palm  :  what  was  his  belonged  to  his  friends  also. 
And  now  that  he  is  dead,  what  he  has  left  of  worldly 
goods,  shall  it  be  taken  from  his  friends  and  neigh- 
bors,—  lawful  inheritors  under  probate  rule,  —  and 
given  to  a  woman  who  by  some  kind  of  enchant- 
ment, legerdemain,  or  other  influence  known  to  the 
female  tribe  Strong-minded,  possessed  herself  of 
Joseph  our  neighbor  ?  Yes,  she,  the  strong-minded 
Lizzie,  captured  and  married  our  brother  Joseph 
without  our  knowledge  or  consent.  Shall  we  suffer 
the  goods  of  our  friend  to  fall  into  her  hands?" 
And  they  —  priest,  pill-man,  pot-hook,  and  all  — 
lifted  up  their  voices  with  a  great  shout,  and  cried 
to  a  man,  "No,  never!"  And  the  Scribe  wrote  it 
down  in  a  big  book,  for  which  he  was  paid,  out  of 
the  estate  of  Joseph,  two  hundred  and  fifty  pieces  of 
money  in  gold,  called  dollars.  And  the  three  Philis- 
tines that  fought  against  her  one  Philistine  beat  him; 
and  they  waxed  exceeding  merry  over  their  triumph, 
and  skipped  about  on  their  right  ear,  and  made  faces 
at  the  Philistine  Albert,  because  he  was  one  "  lean  " 
Philistine,  while  they  were  three  "  fat "  Philistines 
because  they  had  their  hands  in  the  dead  man's 
pocket.  They  were  paid  a  great  price  to  fight  the 
widow  of  Joseph,  and  the  widow  of  Joseph's  estate 
paid  the  great  price ;  and  she  had  nothing  but  her 
groans  to  pay  the  Philistine  Albert,  and  those  were 


198  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

bad  pay,  not  marketable  on  'Change.  The  Execu- 
torites  and  their  three  Philistines  had  stolen  her 
weapons  to  fight  her  with,  which  swelled  them  out 
on  all  sides  like  unto  the  small  animal  which  once 
upon  a  time  sought  to  rival  the  proportions  of  the 
ox. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  after  this  defeat  of  the  widow 
of  Joseph  and  the  one  Philistine,  that  the  widows 
and  orphans  in  the  Valley  and  Shadow  of  Desolation 
rose  up  out  of  their  sackcloth  and  ashes,  and  clothed 
themselves  in  the  stanch  armor  of  the  true  faith  and 
exceeding  great  wrath,  and  crossed  over  the  Torrent 
of  Tears  and  the  River  Despair,  and  camped  over 
against  the  Philistines.  And,  behold,  the  Philistines 
were  very  drunk  with  their  ill-gotten  spoils,  and  did 
not  see  the  vanguard  nor  rearguard  of  the  approach- 
ing enemy.  And  they  did  not  hear  their  steps  round 
about  the  city,  for  they  came  as  softly  as  a  thief  in 
the  night. 

And  lo,  and  behold !  while  the  Philistines  yet 
slept,  the  widows  from  out  the  Valley  of  Desolation 
fell  upon  the  tents  of  the  Haightites,  the  Cobbere- 
ans,  the  Eddites,  the  Samites,  the  Creditorites,  and 
the  tents  of  the  half-tribe  of  Myrick  the  Just,  —  the 
Jiggerites,  —  and  slew  them  all  to  a  man  with  the 
jawbone  of  a  woman.  And,  behold !  the  number  of 
slain  was  beyond  computation.  And,  when  the  last 
Philistine  was  vanquished,  there  went  up  a  great 
shout  from  the  victors  ;  and  the  compassionate  bow- 
els of  the  earth  opened,  and  swallowed  up  the  great 


PHILISTINES   VS.    WIDOWS 


199 


host  of  slain,  together  with  the  Valley  of  Desolation, 
the  Field  of  Sighs,  and  the  River  Despair ;  and  the 
Fountain  and  Torrent  of  Tears  were  dried  up,  and  a 
great  peace  fell  upon  the  earth.  Selah  I 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE  MERCANTILE  LIBRARY. 
Non  quis,  sed  quid. 

To  further  demonstrate,  in  my  own  experience, 
the  disabilities  that  pertain  to  sex,  I  will  give  a  his- 
tory of  Mi.  Stow's  life-membership  in  the  Mercan- 
tile Library  Association.  That  organization  was 
very  much  embarrassed  financially,  at  the  time  he 
became  a  life-member  ;  and  it  continued  in  that  un- 
happy condition  for  many  years  thereafter,  in  spite 
of  the  generosity  of  its  numerous  friends,  and  the 
series  of  concerts  that  the  gifted  Camilla  Urso  inau- 
gurated and  carried  forward  with  so  much  credit  to 
herself  —  she  being  only  a  woman  —  and  such  uni- 
versal satisfaction  to  all  concerned. 

At  last  a  crisis  came,  when  a  very  large  sum  of 
money  had  to  be  raised.  Then  the  sages,  the  wise 
men  and  fathers  of  the  library,  laid  their  heads  to- 
gether, and  spread  their  wings  over  the  financial 
nest,  and  brooded  for  weeks;  and  the  incubation 
brought  forth  a  lottery  chicken.  Lucky  for  those 
bookish  fathers  that  the  Rev.  Dr.  Talmage  was  not 

200 


THE  MERCANTILE  LIBRARY.  201 

one  of  their  number,  to  uncork  his  vial  of  lottery 
wrath  upon  their  unregenerate  heads ! 

Not  a  dissenting  voice  was  raised  loud  enough  to 
be  heard  ;  and  soon  every  one  was  possessed  with  the 
fallacious  idea  that  he  or  she  was  to  be  the  fortunate 
winner  of  the  magic  $  100, 000  prize.  Everybody  and 
everybody's  wife  and  everybody's  mother-in-law 
bought  tickets.  Men  went  without  drinks,  and 
women  without  "  loves  of  bonnets,"  to  buy  coupons. 
Ministers  were  robbed  of  their  donations,  the  heathen 
of  their  flannel,  the  ungodly  went  without  tracts,  and 
babies  without  bibs,  all  to  enable  some  one  to  become 
modestly  rich  at  one  turn  of  a  wheel.  Thus  a  large 
mass  of  the  people,  at  home  and  abroad,  were  made 
participants  in  the  great  lottery  scheme  to  free  a 
noble  institution  from  ignominious  debt.  It  was 
maliciously  hinted  that  some  poor  people  sold  all 
they  had  to  possess  themselves  of  the  wherewithal  to 
secure  the  captivating  $100,000.  But  "hearsay"  is 
a  scandal-monger;  and  what  if  they  did  sell  their 
little  homestead  ?  Is  that  an  unusual  or  remark- 
able circumstance  ?  Whenever  there  is  a  corner  in 
the  stock-market,  is  not  this  same  thing  repeated 
again  and  again  ?  What  of  it  ?  Eve^body ,  except- 
ing wives  and  widows,  has  a  right  to  do  as  every- 
body pleases  in  a  free  country. 

On  the  day  of  the  drawing,  there  were  about  six 
thousand  people  assembled  within  the  old  Pavilion,  — 
a  building  that  was  an  eyesore  for  years  to  the  ten- 
der-eyed Union-square  people.  There  was  a  mot- 


202  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

ley  crowd  gathered  together  in  that  transitory  edifice, 
—  a  seething,  bellowing,  heaving  multitude.  The 
elegant,  in  fine,  sweet-scented  raiment,  hobnobbed 
with  the  unwashed,  uncombed,  and  unkempt.  The 
millionnaire  and  Barbaiy-Coaster  sat  down  together, 
awaiting  the  turn  of  Fortune's  wheel.  On  the  stage 
and  in  the  gallery  were  reserved  seats  for  the  man- 
agers, their  wives,  sweethearts,  and  lady  friends. 
Upon  the  stage  was  the  wheel,  and  within  the 
wheel  was  the  $100,000  prize,  with  some  lesser 
prizes  and  many  blanks.  The  prizes  were  all  shut 
up  in  little,  long  finger-boxes,  the  size  and  shape 
of  a  whistle,  which  suggested  to  the  loser  the  con- 
soling privilege  that  he  could  whistle  down  liis  dis- 
appointment. Three  blind  mice  from  the  Deaf  and 
Dumb  Asylum  officiated  at  the  drawing,  thus  sym- 
bolizing the  idea  that  justice  is  blind.  One  turned 
the  wheel;  one  thrust  in  his  hand,  and  seized  the 
first  paper  whistle  that  came  in  contact  with  his  deli- 
cate fingers,  which  paper  whistle  he  instantly  gave 
to  the  third  assistant ;  who  opened  it,  and  drew 
forth  the  check  upon  which  was  stamped  in  large 
letters  the  number  and  value  of  the  prize;  and  this 
check  he  held  up  in  full  view  of  the  eager  crowd, 
while  Mr.  Stow,  standing  behind  him,  called  off  the 
lucky  number  and  the  amount  of  the  prize.  Three 
times  was  each  number  and  the  amount  shout  m 
from  the  stage,  and  taken  up  and  repeated  three 
times  by  the  mass  inside,  for  the  benefit  of  the  ma>s 
outside.  There  were  nearly  as  many  without  as 


THE  MERCANTILE  LIBRARY.  203 

within  the  building.  "  Ten  thousand  "  was  called  ; 
"  thirty  thousand  ;  "  "  one  thousand  ;  "  "  twenty 
thousand ;  "  "  fifty  thousand ;  "  "  two  thousand :  " 
then  the  wheel  refused  to  go  round.  It  evidently 
was  filled  with  compassion,  as  well  as  tickets,  for  the 
grief  and  bitter  disappointment  that  its  revolutions 
were  bringing  to  so  many  hearts.  At  this  inter- 
ruption a  sound  like  the  groan  before  a  tempest 
surged  through  the  immense  building.  Some  cried 
out  "  Fraud!  "  Others  with  wild  eyes  pressed  for- 
ward with  muttered  curses,  bent  upon  taking  things 
into  their  own  hands  ;  babies  screamed,  and  women 
fainted.  At  this  painful  crisis  Mr.  Stow  stepped  to 
the  front  of  the  platform,  and  said,  "  Be  patient, 
my  friends  :  it  is  but  a  momentary  interruption.  A 
little  oil  will  allay  the  friction,  and  then  all  will 
work  well  again." 

"  Where's  the  8100,000  ?  "  broke  out  many  voices, 
-  "  where's  the  $100,000  ?  Show  us  that,  and  we'll 
be  quiet ;  but  not  till  we've  seen  that  will  we  believe 
it's  all  right.  Hurry  up !  no  foolin' !  " 

By  this  time  the  wheel  was  in  motion  again,  and 
the  $100,000  was  soon  turned  out,  which  caused 
many  hearts  to  drop  way  down  to  the  soles  of  their 
shoes,  and  there  they  remained  for  many  a  day  — 
perhaps. 

Immediately  after  the  drawing  of  the  last  prize, 
Mr.  Stow  beckoned  to  me  (I  was  near  the  stage  in 
the  gallery)  to  join  him.  As  soon  as  we  could  free 
ourselves  from  the  throng,  we  got  into  the  carriage, 


204  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

and  drove  with  all  speed  to  the  Occidental,  where 
we  were  boarding  at  the  time.  I  said  to  him, 
"  What  made  you  look  so  pale  while  you  were 
speaking?  were  you  ill?"  "Pale!"  he  replied: 
"  do  you  see  this  and  this  ?  "  and  he  took  from  his 
pockets  two  revolvers ;  "  why,  my  child,  every  one 
of  us,  to  a  man,  was  armed  to  the  teeth ;  and  I  thank 
God  it's  over !  I  would  not  pass  through  another 
such  ordeal  for  the  price  of  my  life,  and  I'm  no 
coward.  But  I  assure  you,  it's  not  a  pleasant  thing 
to  talk  to  plug-uglies  when  you  know  they  are  armed, 
and  bent  on  mischief  if  all  does  not  go  according  to 
their  peculiar  code  of  honor." 

Several  of  the  managers  called  that  evening  to 
congratulate  Mr.  Stow  on  his  happy  escape  out  of 
the  threatened  difficulty ;  and  among  them  was  the 
late  R.  B.  Swain,  who  had  been  one  of  the  most  active 
and  efficient  agents  in  perfecting  the  enterprise,  and 
bringing  it  to  a  successful  termination.  Said  he, 
"  Well,  Stow,  you  have  done  more  than  all  of  us  put 
together.  I  would  not  have  stood  in  your  shoes 
when  that  outbreak  came  for  all  the  money  drawn 
to-day.  That  was  an  ugly  crowd.  An  unguarded 
word  would  have  sent  the  bullets  flying,  and  the 
roughs  would  have  taken  possession  of  the  stage, 
wheel  and  all,  making  short  work  of  such  as  resisted." 

At  the  death  of  R.  B.  Swain,  his  Mercantile  Library 
mantle  gracefully  descended,  without  remonstrance 
of  any  sort,  upon  the  shoulders  of  his  son,  then  about 
fifteen  years  of  age.  Of  course  his  widow  was  left 


THE  MERCANTILE  LIBRARY.  205 

out  in  the  cold,  the  same  as  I  am ;  but  I  have  no  son, 
so  the  grateful  library  has  my  husband's  and  my 
money  (fifty  dollars  paid  for  the  life-membership  was 
mine  by  law)  all  for  nothing.  I  have  written  two 
letters  to  two  sets  of  officers,  begging  that  high- 
minded  chivalric  body,  or  those  bodies  rathsr-,  in 
remembrance  of  the  unusual  services  rendered  that 
institution  by  my  husband  in  its  hour  of  need,  to 
grant  me  the  use  of  his  membership  as  long  as  I 
should  be  held  in  durance  vile  on  this  coast  by  the 
Probate  Court.  An  ominous  silence  has  been  main- 
tained. Not  one  scratch  of  a  goose-quill  have  these 
momentarily  great  officials  accorded  me.  That 
library  has  no  time,  pen,  ink,  or  stomach,  to  waste 
on  a  poverty-stricken  widow.  It  wants  a  dollar  a 
month  if  I  quench  my  thirst  at  its  fountain ;  but  it 
won't  get  it.  No !  nor  would  it  were  I  worth  a 
million.  If  any  one  in  the  city  of  San  Francisco 
has  a  right  to  read  the  books  in  the  Mercantile 
Library  without  further  pay,  it  is  the  widow  of  J. 
W.  Stow. 

The  librarian  said  that  Mrs.  Swain  paid  her  dollar 
a  month  without  making  a  FUSS  about  it.  But  I 
aru  neither  subdued  nor  quieted  by  precedent.  Re- 
bellion, under  such  treatment,  is  Godlike.  What 
right  has  that  library  to  take  away  that  life-member- 
ship from  me  ?  I  repeat,  fifty  dollars  of  the  purchase 
money  was  mine  by  law ;  for  Mr.  Stow  became  a  life- 
member  after  we  were  married.  There  is  no  honor 
nor  justice  in  an  institution  that  robs  a  widow  of  any 


206  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

privilege  enjoyed  by  her  as  a  wife.  If  I  had  had  a 
son,  there  would  not  have  been  a  hand  raised  to 
strike  off  his  head.  Why  ?  Because  he  would  have 
belonged  to  the  unquestionable  gender. 

When  a  man  dies  without  male  issue,  his  mantle 
of  membership  is  wrapped  around  him  with  his  burial 
clothes,  and  put  into  his  coffin,  and  the  lid  screwed 
down,  and  the  earth  heaped  upon  it  so  high  that  the 
mantle  can  never  have  a  resurrection  under  any  cir- 
cumstances. His  wife  and  daughters  must  live  in 
ignorance  of  books,  if  they  cannot  afford  to  pay  the 
price  of  membership  over  again.  What  a  sublime, 
enlightened,  humanizing'  age  we  live  in !  How  fa- 
therly, brotherly,  Christianly !  how  noble,  how  digni- 
fied, how  absolute !  how  pretty,  how  polite,  how 
refined !  how  lovely,  how  sweet,  how  charming ! 
how  gallant,  how  chivalric,  how  sublime  !  how  duti- 
ful, how  greedful,  how  pitiful ! 

I  go  every  week  to  that  library,  and  get  books, 
and  read  the  papers,  and  sit  in  the  perpetual  twilight 
of  the  room  "  exclusively  for  ladies,"  where  there  has 
not  been  a  fire  all  winter,  or,  at  any  rate,  the  days 
that  I  have  been  there.  Coals  are  very  dear  in  San 
Francisco.  I  have  longed,  when  I  have  heard  the 
ladies  sneezing,  as  they  refreshed  the  "inner  woman  M 
— mentally — on  the  magazine,  literature  of  that  or 
those  rooms,  to  get  a  peep  into  the  chess-room  for 
men,  believing  that  there  was  sunlight  and  firelight 
both  there.  There  is  neither  on  the  ladies'  side.  We 
are  compelled  to  "see  by  a  glass,  darkly."  Good 


THE  MERCANTILE  LIBRARY.  207 

enough  for  women,  who  live  so  much  of  their  time  in 
a  reflected  light  that  they  ought  to  be  used  to  it  by 
this  time.  I  expect,  every  time  I  ask  for  a  book  or 
books,  to  get  the  long-looked-for  information  from  the 
polite  young  gentlemen  who  officiate  behind  the  rail- 
ing, that  the  "committee-men"  have  decided  that 
Mrs.  J.  W.  Stow  has  been  accommodated  with  books 
long  enough  without  pay.  But  for  this  denoument, 
I,  like  Antonio,  "  am  armed  and  fully  prepared  "  for 
the  blow,  and  when  it  comes  I  intend  to  take  up  my 
daily  residence  in  the  magazine-room  (not  powder), 
for  it  is  warm  and  light  up  there.  I  think  it  was 
designed  exclusively  for  men ;  but  women  have  in- 
vaded the  sacred  territory,  and  it  would  take  bullets 
the  size  of  cannon-balls  to  drive  them  out  now. 

I  feel  almost  certain  that  the  time  draws  nigh 
when  I  shall  be  refused  books  down  stairs ;  for,  when 
I  go  to  the  library,  those  polite  young  men  aforemen- 
tioned look  at  each  other,  and  whisper,  "  There's 
Mrs.  Stow,"  which  reminds  me  of  the  wisdom  of  a 
follower  of  the  renowned  and  amiable  Dogberry,  who 
had  knowledge  of  one  "  Deformed,"  knew  him  by 
sight,  etc.,  etc. 


CHAPTER   XXI. 

UNJUST  TAXATION. 
Dum  vivimtu,  vivamus. 

I  HERE  and  now,  on  the  twenty-eighth  day  of  the  month  of 
December,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  eighteen  hundred  and 
seventy-six,  and  for  all  time  to  come,  make  and  place  on  file 
in  the  Tax  Collector's  office  in  the  City  and  County  of  San 
Francisco,  State  of  California,  in  the  Federal  Republic  known 
as  the  United  States  of  America,  the  blazing  star  of  freedom 
and  equality  among  the  civilized  nations  of  the  earth,  a  I>«T- 
petual  protest  against  paying  taxes  for  the  support  of  a  govern- 
ment in  which  I  am  denied  all  voice  or  hearing  of  any  name  or 
nature, — a  government  professedly  claiming  to  be  free  and 
equal. 

I  claim,  as  every  other  woman  in  the  land  has  a  right  to 
claim,  that  no  subsidy,  charge,  tax,  impost,  or  duties  ought  to 
be  established,  fixed,  laid  or  levied,  under  any  pretext  whatso- 
ever, without  the  consent  of  the  people  so  taxed. 

So  long  as  the  entire  government  of  the  State  and  Nation,  in 
all  its  various  branches,  executive,  legislative,  and  judicial,  is 
masculine,  —  or,  in  other  words,  so  long  as  the  entire  power  of 
making,  interpreting,  and  executing  all  the  laws  which  are  to 
aifect  the  property  of  every  woman  in  the  State  and  Nation  is 
exclusively  vested  in  male  citizens,  —  the  government  is  a 
fraud  ;  and  under  it  women  are  deprived  of  safety  and  protec- 
tion in  their  property-rights,  their  wages,  and  their  freedom  of 
action.  Under  it  the  noble  language  of  the  Declaration  of 
208 


UNJUST  TAXATION.  209 

Independence  becomes  as  sounding  brass  and  tinkling  Cymbals. 
What  is  the  meaning  of  these  words  ?  "  We  hold  these  truths 
to  be  self-evident :  that  all  men  are  created  equal,  and  endowed 
by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights ;  that  among  these 
are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  That,  to  secure 
these  rights,  governments  are  instituted  among  men,  deriving 
their  just  powers  from  the  CONSENT  of  the  governed;  and  that, 
whenever  any  form  of  government  becomes  destructive  of  these 
ends,  it  is  the  right  of  the  PEOPLE  to  alter  or  abolish  it." 

We  women-"  PEOPLE  "  claim  this  inestimable  right,  the  right 
to  claim  our  just  prerogative, — representation  and  recognition 
as  " people."  We  would  be  freel  Take  away  the  rank  political 
injustice  which  forms  the  ground-work  of  all  proscription, 
tyranny,  and  absolutism ! 

The  keynote  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  is,  that 
governments  derive  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed  ;  a  beautiful  theory  which  has  never  come  into  prac- 
tice. I  am  taxed,  with  every  other  woman  in  the  land,  without 
my  consent.  Taxation  without  representation  is  tyranny  ;  tax- 
ation without  representation  is  unconstitutional :  taxation  and 
representation  are  inseparable  correlatives. 

MARIETTA  L.  B.  Srow. 

The  right  of  protest  and  criticism  is  an  inalienable 
inheritance.  No  usurping  power  can  stop  up  the 
escape-valve  of  speech,  prayer,  and  supplication, 
while  it  steals  the  contents  of  purse,  lands,  live-stock, 
or  personal  effects,  to  support  a  free  government 
which  holds  half  of  its  adult  population  in  legal 
bondage  worse  than  serfdom  —  for  serfs  are  not  the 
educated  social  companions  of  their  masters. 

A  hundred  years  ago  men,  aided  and  abetted  by 
women,  freed  themselves  from  the  ignoble  bondage 
of  a  forced  taxation  without  representation.  They 


210  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

fought  bravely  for  their  rights.  Now,  when  women 
are  roused  to  the  same  zeal  for  personal  protection 
against  criminal  oppression,  how  do  the  mass  of  men 
view  the  movement?  Do  they  rush  to  the  rescue 
as  our  foremothers  did,  when  they  moulded  their 
spoons  into  bullets  and  their  love  into  heroic  deeds  ? 
Do  they  come  to  the  front  with  brave  words  of  cheer, 
or  sneak  behind  the  high  wall  of  prejudice,  and  hurl 
the  poisoned  arrows  of  ridicule,  malice,  hatred,  and 
scorn,  at  the  undaunted  leaders  of  the  "  Unterrified 
Sisterhood  "  ?  Women  are  taxed  every  year  by  Con- 
gress millions  of  dollars,  without  their  consent.  Our 
forefathers  risked  death  rather  than  pay  a  tax  of 
threepence  a  pound  on  tea.  The  gallant  sons  of 
those  heroic  rebels  compel  the  daughters  to  pay  a 
tax  of  twenty-five  cents  (two  bits)  on  every  pound 
of  tea  they  consume.  They  —  the  sons  —  sell  their 
—  the  daughters'  —  lands,  live  stock,  and  personal 
effects,  to  pay  taxes  which  have  been  levied  without 
their  consent,  and  in  the  face  of  the  most  vehement 
protest. 

Every  farthing  thus  wrested  from  a  disfranchised 
class  is  in  direct  violation  of  the  fundamental  laws 
of  the  nation.  We  deny  the  constitutional  right  to 
tax  any  person  without  his  or  her  consent.  A  hun- 
dred years  ago  taxation  without  representation  was 
deemed  well  worth  a  war  of  seven  years.  Blood  and 
treasure  were  freely  given  to  gain  what  is  now 
denied  to  women.  It  is  not  strange  that  brave  men 
fought  for  s;  ich  rights :  it  is  only  strange  that  brave 


UNJUST  TAXATION.  211 

men  to-day  inflict  such  WRONGS  upon  woman,  and 
that  so  many  women  meekly  endure  it.  What  will 
rouse  them  to  the  consciousness  that  they  are  living 
under  an  oligarchy  or  absolute  despotism  from  which 
they  have  no  appeal  ? 

Taxes,  to  the  last  decimal,  are  wrung  from  widows 
and  unmarried  women,  while  usurers  go  free  —  or 
pay  but  a  moiety  of  what  a  true  assessment  of  their 
possessions  requires  that  they  should  pay.  The  cry 
comes  from  every  State  and  Territory,  "  Taxation 
without  representation  is  tyranny."  Here  is  what 
the  Sisters  Smith  of  Glastonbury,  Conn.,  say  :  "  We 
have  paid  our  tax  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet. 
When  you  fall  into  the  hands  of  banditti,  and  have 
turned  every  way,  and  done  all  in  your  power  to 
escape,  and  find  no  escape  for  you,  you  must  yield 
to  their  demands.  Our  case,  taking  the  literal 
meaning,  is  perfectly  parallel  to  the  account  given 
in  the  Bible  of  Naboth  the  Jezreelite. 

44  We  have  had  our  valuable  cows  seized  and  sold  at 
the  auction-block,  our  whole  meadow-land  attached, 
and  eleven  acres  sold,  for  a  tax  of  not  quite  fifty 
dollars,  worth  more  than  two  thousand  dollars.  We 
seem  to  be  left  without  a  country,  and  we  cannot 
see  but  we  should  fare  better  under  a  king ;  for 
King  George  himself  never  attached  woman's  prop- 
erty in  so  unfeeling  arid  cowardly  a  manner  as  has 
been  done  to  us." 

Abby  Kelly  Foster,  of  Worcester,  Mass.,  has  had 
property  sold  to  the  amount  of  thousands  of  dollars 


212  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

for  a  tax  of  less  than  a  hundred.  Mrs.  Foster  gave 
more  than  thirty  years  of  her  life  to  secure  the  per- 
sonal rights  of  slaves.  Now  she  is  doing  battle  for 
the  personal  rights  of  all  women.  She  says,  "  When 
I  am  free,  as  men  are,  to  help  make  and  unmake  or 
alter  the  condition  of  organized  society,  I  will  cheer- 
fully bear  my  share  of  its  expenses."  By  resisting 
the  payment  of  taxes  just  as  they  do,  Mrs.  Fo- 
and  the  Sisters  Smith  show  the  same  spirit  which 
John  Hancock  and  Samuel  Adams  did  a  century 
ago. 

Women,  as  a  class,  are  excluded  from  any  part  in 
the  governmental  organization  of  society.  Men  of 
all  nations,  color,  and  creed  are  admitted  to  it.  The 
male  minor  only  waits  to  reach  majority.  At  twen- 
ty-one he  is  a  voter.  The  foreigner  has  only  to  con- 
form to  naturalization  laws,  and  he  is  a  voter.  All 
men,  rich  and  poor,  who  are  not  imbecile  or  criminal, 
have  only  these  easy  conditions  of  admission  to  the 
body  politic,  and  to  their  full  influence  in  making, 
unmaking,  or  altering  the  conditions  of  organized 
society.  Even  the  reservation  Indians  in  Massachu- 
setts, while  under  guardianship,  are  allowed  to  vote 
if  they  pay  poll-tax.  In  what  does  the  difference  of 
poll-tax  and  land-tax  consist  ?  I,  for  one,  desire  to 
pay  poll-tax  if  I  can  vote  by  so  doing. 

Indians  under  guardianship  are  like  the  wives  of 
this  State,  with  the  exception  of  suffrage  :  they  can- 
not sue  or  be  sued  without  being  joined  in  the  suit 
by  their  protectors ;  they  cannot  receive  wages  for 


UNJUST  TAXATION.  213 

a  voyage,  if  payment  is  forbidden  by  their  guardians. 
And  yet,  though  subject  to  these  disqualifications, 
the  rights  of  citizenship  are  conceded  when  they 
own  property,  and  consent  to  be  taxed. 

All  women  in  Massachusetts  who  own  property 
are  taxed  without  representation,  while  the  more 
favored  Punkapogs  and  Nipmugs  who  scalped  their 
ancestors  are  relieved  from  the  burden  if  they  re- 
fuse to  pay  taxes.  Their  cows  and  wigwams  do  not 
fall  under  the  hammer.  Ah,  no !  the  humane  Mas- 
sachusetts voter  protects  his  masculine  ward.  Lo, 
the  poor  Indian,  is  of  far  more  consequence  than 
Abby  Foster  or  Abby  Smith.  William  I.  Bowditch 
of  Boston,  in  his  admirable  work  on  "  Taxation," 
says,  "  There  is  another  fact  connected  with  the  tax- 
ation of  women,  which,  being  a  man,  I  am  ashamed 
to  point  out,  but  which  yet  cannot  be  passed  over  in 
silence  ;  and  that  is  the  inexpressible  meanness  of 
the  thing.  We  men  save  at  least  two  millions  of 
dollars  every  year  from  our  own  burdens  by  this  act 
of  injustice. 

"  The  cities  and  towns  pay  more  than  half  the  taxes 
levied  in  the  State,  and  the  women  pay  more  than 
one-ninth  of  the  whole ;  so  that  one-half  the  men 
of  property  in  the  State  save  every  year  more  than 
one-ninth  of  their  taxes,  by  compelling  the  women 
who  have  no  votes  with  which  to  protect  themselves 
to  pay  the  amount. 

"  Do  the  women  of  this  Commonwealth  consent  to 
such  taxation?  Under  the  Constitution,  'no  tax, 


214  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

&c.,  ought  to  be  levied,  &c.,  under  any  pretext 
whatsoever,  without  the  consent  of  the  people  or 
their  representatives  in  the  Legislature.'  This  con- 
sent may  be,  and,  as  we  shall  see,  has  been  in  sever- 
al instances,  individually  given  by  the  person  who  is 
taxed ;  but,  for  the  mass,  such  consent  can  only  be 
given  in  the  way  pointed  out  by  the  law  for  the 
mass  of  the  people  to  use,  —  that  is,  by  voting.  So 
long  as  a  citizen  can  vote  in  open  town-meeting  for 
or  against  his  own  taxation  ;  so  long  as  a  citizen  of 
any  city  can  vote  for  members  of  the  city  govern- 
ment to  whom  he  has,  under  the  law,  intrusted  the 
power  to  levy  taxes  on  his  estate  ;  and  so  long  as  a 
citizen  can  vote  for  governor,  senators,  and  repre- 
sentatives, to  whom,  under  the  Constitution,  he  has 
intrusted  the  power  to  lay  State  taxes,  —  he  has  no 
reasonable  ground  for  complaint.  Nor  can  he  object 
to  being  taxed  by  either  of  these  bodies,  if,  thus 
possessing  the  power  by  his  vote  to  assent  or  dis- 
sent, he  refrains  from  exercising  the  right.  In  all 
cases,  therefore,  where  a  citizen  has  the  right  to 
vote,  no  matter  whether  he  exercises  the  right  or 
not,  he  virtually  consents  to  all  the  state,  county, 
city,  and  town  taxes  which  may  be  levied  upon  him 
or  his  estate.  When  the  Constitution  declares  that 
no  tax  can  be  levied  without  the  consent  of  the 
people,  it  is  to  be  understood  as  referring  to  the 
people  who  are  thus  taxed,  and  nobody  else.  It  was 
of  no  sort  of  consequence  to  our  fathers,  that  the 
people  of  England  consented  to  tax  America.  Ami 


UNJUST  TAXATION.  215 

when  our  Constitution  says  that  no  tax  ought  to  be 
laid  without  the  consent  of  the  representatives  of 
the  people,  it  is  to  be  understood  as  referring  to  the 
representatives  whom  the  people  who  are  to  be 
taxed  have  the  right  to  vote  for  or  against,  and 
which  representatives,  in  this  way,  become  author- 
ized to  consent  to  such  taxation. 

"  But  the  Constitution  is  to  be  construed  in  a  rea- 
sonable manner.  The  consent  of  every  one  who 
may  be  taxed  cannot  possibly  be  obtained.  A  citi- 
zen may  become  insane,  and  therefore  incapable  of 
contracting.  His  consent  to  being  taxed  would  be 
nothing,  even  if  it  could  be  obtained  ;  and  he  surely 
ought  not  to  be  allowed  to  vote.  Therefore,  al- 
though the  Constitution  requires  the  consent  of 
every  citizen  to  his  taxation  before  he  can  be  legally 
taxed,  it  must  be  understood  to  refer  only  to  those 
who  are  recognized  by  the  law  as  capable  of  giving 
such  consent,  or  those  who  are  deemed  capable  of 
contracting,  of  earning,  holding,  and  conveying  the 
property  which  is  to  be  taxed.  The  Constitution 
does  not,  therefore,  require  the  consent  of  minors  to 
their  taxation,  because,  being  under  the  age  of  con- 
sent, they  may  avoid  any  contract  they  may  make 
(except  for  actual  necessaries),  when  they  come  of 
age,  no  matter  how  fair  and  honest  the  contract  may 
have  been.  Nor  does  it  require  the  consent  of  per- 
sons under  guardianship,  —  as  insane  or  spendthrifts, 
—  for  they  have  no  greater  power  to  contract  than 
minors  possess.  But  it  does  require  the  consent  of 


216  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

every  other  citizen  in  the  way  above  stated,  before 
he  or  she  may  be  lawfully  taxed,  except  only  pau- 
pers and  convicts.  A  citizen  who  is  a  pauper  has 
nothing  to  be  taxed  for,  and  is  not  allowed  to  vote. 
A  citizen  who  becomes  a  convict,  as  part  of  his  pun- 
ishment, is  deprived  of  the  right  of  suffrage.  An 
alien  who  resides  here  knows  that  his  property 
is  liable  to  be  taxed.  Having  no  natural  right  to 
remain  here,  if  he  continues  to  remain,  by  such  act 
he  consents  to  be  taxed,  within  the  meaning  of  the 
Constitution. 

"  This  disposes  of  all  the  inhabitants  or  residents 
who  can  possibly  be  taxed  under  our  laws,  except 
only  male  and  female  citizens  of  full  age,  none  of 
whom  are  paupers,  convicts,  insane,  or  spendthrift, 
and  all  of  whom  have  equal  right  to  contract,  to  ac- 
quire, buy,  and  sell  the  property  which  is  to  be  taxed, 
or,  in  other  words,  precisely  the  same  qualifications 
for  voting,  except  merely  sex ;  and  the  larger  num- 
ber of  these  citizens  are  women.  Everybody  else  in 
the  State,  of  full  age,  who  can  be  taxed,  either  con- 
sents to  such  taxation,  or,  being  legally  incapable 
of  contracting,  cannot  consent,  or  is  excluded  from 
suffrage,  on  grounds  entirely  disconnected  with  sex  ; 
that  is,  for  want  of  property,  or  for  ignorance,  insuf- 
ficient residence,  or  as  a  punishment  for  crime,  &c. 

"  Here,  then,  are  two  classes  of  citizens,  each  pos- 
sessing equal  qualifications  for  voting  ;  and  the  right 
of  suffrage  is  confined  to  males,  but  both  males  and 
females  are  taxed. 


UNJUST  TAXATION.  217 

"  Can  any  female  citizen  who  is  thus  denied  the 
right  to  vote  be  constitutionally  taxed  ? 

"In  the  opinion  of  the  judges  of  our  Supreme 
Court,  the  taxation  of  male  citizens  must  go  hand  in 
hand  with  his  right  to  representation  ;  and,  if  he  is 
denied  the  right  to  vote,  he  cannot  constitutionally 
be  taxed. 

"If,  under  our  Constitution,  a  minority  of  the  citi- 
zens can  deprive  the  majority  of  the  right  of  repre- 
sentation, and  still  retain  the  right  to  tax  them,  then 
our  fathers  fought  to  save  their  pockets,  and  not 
their  principles.  If  we  male  citizens  of  Massachu- 
setts can  rightfully  do  this,  then  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  and  our  Bill  of  Rights  are  a  mere 
tissue  of  glittering  generalities,  and  wholly  incapa- 
ble of  any  practical  resistance  to  oppression. 

"  That  the  right  to  tax  male  citizens  is  based  en- 
tirely on  their  right  to  vote,  is  also  clear  from  the 
fact  that,  whenever  we  have  deprived  them  of  the 
right  to  vote  in  the  place  where  they  reside,  we  have 
also  relieved  them  from  taxation  in  such  place." 

The  republics  of  the  Old  World  gave  the  franchise 
first  to  the  patricians,  then  to  the  people,  and  lastly 
to  the  helots,  always  degrading  womanhood.  What 
was  the  result  ?  Is  this  nation  to  drift  into  the  same 
vortex  of  ruin  and  anarchy?  The  election  portals 
are  thrown  wide  open  to  the  felon  from  prison,  the 
pauper  from  the  almshouse,  to  all  ignorance,  all  vice  ; 
but  to  the  high-born  American  woman,  cultured, 
refined,  rich,  and  pure,  those  free  portals  are  doubly 


218  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

locked,  doubly  barred,  by  man's  prejudice  and  power. 
The  power  of  might !  We  claim  that  this  political 
right  to  vote  belongs  as  much  to  a  woman  citizen  as 
does  the  land  for  which  she  is  taxed. 

Men  make  laws,  and  they  should  be  chivalric 
enough  to  pay  for  the  support  of  the  same.  They 
compel  me  to  pay  enormous  taxes  and  street  assess- 
ments to  support  a  wasteful,  extravagant  government, 
in  which  I  am  denied  all  voice  and  under  which  I 
have  no  fat  clerical  position.  My  taxes  in  1874  in 
San  Francisco  were  $158.50;  in  1875,  81-1. iM  ;  in 
1876,  $171.06.  What  caused  the  variation  in  the 
amount  in  two  years'  time  ?  Did  the  real  estate 
suddenly  depreciate  in  value,  and  then  as  suddenly 
appreciate  ?  Each  time  these  fluctuating  taxes  be- 
came due,  I  had  no  money  to  meet  the  urgent  de- 
mand, because  I  was  caught  in  the  relentless  jaws 
of  Probate. 

Two  wrongs  do  not  make  a  right !  I  am  wronged 
and  outraged  by  being  thrust  into  Probate  against 
my  will.  I  am  wronged  and  outraged  by  being  taxed 
against  my  will. 

Tax  number  one,  during  Probate  seizure,  was  paid, 
as  heretofore  narrated  in  these  pages,  by  the  sale  of 
my  silver;  number  two,  by  the  sale  of  tickets  for 
lectures  —  which  very  few  felt  inclined  to  attend  — 
perhaps  it  was  the  rain  that  dampened  their  ardor : 
it  poured  each  night.  Number  three  was  paid  on 
the  28th  of  this  month,  by  the  proceeds  of  the  sale 
of  tickets  for  a  handsome  ring,— -opal  set  round  with 


UNJUST  TAXATION.  219 

brilliants,  —  one  of  the  Christmas  presents  made  me 
by  my  husband  in  1873. 

Ticket  number  forty-eight  drew  the  silver  in  1874, 
and  ticket  number  sixty-seven  drew  the  ring  in  1876. 

A  sewer  has  been  dug  in  front  of  my  house,  and 
the  street  McAdamized,  which  cost  me  several  hun- 
dred dollars.  And  yet  I  had  no  intimation  that  snoh 
improvements  were  in  progress  (I  do  not  live  in  the 
house),  until  the  bills  were  presented  for  payment. 
The  excuse  was  that  they  could  not  find  me.  But 
when  money  is  wanted  I  am  found  as  quickly  as  a 
man  is  found,  and,  judging  from  experience,  often- 
times much  quicker. 

What  did  it  matter  to  high  masculine  potentates 
whether  I  could  raise  the  money  to  pay  for  the 
work,  or  not  ?  They  were  secure.  They  could  lien 
my  property,  and  sell  me  out. 

It  is  said  that  men  hate  to  transact  business  with 
women.  Some  of  them  do  not  hate  to  possess  them- 
selves of  their  money,  however ;  but  they  hate  to 
refund  it,  or  render  an  exchange  of  courtesy  in  any 
form.  Several  of  the  savings  banks  of  this  city 
hated  to  loan  me  money, — hated  so  strong  that  they 
refused  altogether.  When  I  asked  for  $10,000,  they 
said  the  sum  was  too  large,  —  that  they  were  not  at 
that  particular  year,  month,  week,  day,  hour,  minute, 
and  second,  loaning  so  large  a  sum  to  one  individual 
(woman)  ;  and  when  I  asked  for  $2,000,  they  said 
that  they  were  not  at  that  particular  year,  month, 
week,  day,  hour,  minute,  and  second,  lending  so 
small  a  sum  to  one  individual  (woman). 


220  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

These  banks  hated  to  lend  me  money,  but  they 
loved  to  have  the  use  of  my  money  for  nothing.  I 
bought  pass-books,  —  $2.50  apiece,  —  from  two  of 
these  sensitive  banks,  and  have  had  from  time  to 
time  money  on  deposit  to  the  amount  of  several  thou- 
sand dollars,  taken  as  a  whole,  which  money  has 
rarely  paid  interest  because  it  was  not  on  deposit 
long  enough  at  a  time.  I  asked  the  president  of  one 
of  them  if  he  would  have  refused  my  husband  a 
loan  upon  my  property  if  he  had  applied  for  one 
during  his  life.  He  —  the  president  —  maintained  a 
golden  silence,  leaving  me  to  uncertain  conjecture  as 
to  that  fact. 

One  handsome,  portly  director,  to  whom  I  men- 
tioned the  matter,  said  to  me,  "  I  voted  against  you 
when  your  application  came  before  the  board." 

44  How  could  you  be  guilty  of  such  a  wicked 
deed  ?  "  I  exclaimed. 

"  Because  I  did  not  want  to  see  you  lose  your 
property  by  a  forced  sale.  It  is  very  hard  to  sell  a 
widow's  estate,"  he  made  answer  in  the  most  amia- 
ble and  dignified  manner  possible.  All  handsome 
men  are  dignified  towards  the  weaker  sex  in  San 
Francisco. 

"  How  very  considerate  !  "  I  continued.  "  But 
never  fear.  The  bank  you  help  steer  shall  never 
foreclose  on  a  rood  of  my  land,  nor  shall  any  sister 
savings  institution  be  shocked  and  pained  by  such  a 
sale.  I  never  intend  to  suffer  strangulation  by  a 
banker's  noose." 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

MARRIAGE   A   COPARTNERSHIP. 

Cavendo  tutus. 

WHY  do  men  marry  ?  There  must  be  some  method 
in  their  madness.  Is  it  for  love  ?  Rarely,  I  think. 
They  may  swear  it  by  the  moon ;  but  usually,  the 
stronger  they  swear,  the  more  ephemeral  the  "ethe- 
real fluid."  Sam  Johnson  gives  "proximity"  as  the 
reason.  But  Sam  evidently  argued  from  a  personal 
standpoint ;  and  that  is  bad  logic,  with  "  Hetty  "  in 
his  eye.  There  are  many  reasons  why  a  man  marries, 
the  principal  one  being  selfishness.  He  will  not  admit 
the  fact,  however,  because  he  does  not  take  the 
trouble  to  analyze  his  feelings.  He  construes  his 
personal  necessities  into  love.  One  might  commit  a 
greater  error.  A  true  man  wants  to  perpetuate  him- 
self in  his  legitimate  children,  therefore  a  wife  is 
indispensable ;  besides,  he  needs  a  housekeeper  or  a 
companion,  and  it  is  cheaper  to  marry  the  necessity 
than  to  hire  it. 

A  young  man  often  marries  for  money  and  posi- 
tion. He  secures  the  money  by  taking  a  wife,  as  a 
necessary  evil,  to  cement  the  contract.  Another  mar- 

221 


222  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

ries  to  have  a  home  of  his  own.  He  is  tired  of  hotels 
and  boarding-houses,  tired  of  buttonless  shirts  and 
toeless  stockings,  tired  of  being  a  fraction  among 
the  common  herd :  he  sighs  for  warm  slippers  and 
the  absolutism  of  his  own  hearthstone.  He  would  be 
a  general :  rank  and  file  have  become  distasteful  to 
him. 

An  old  man  turns  into  a  human  vampire,  and 
marries  a  young  girl  in  order  to  eke  out  his  life  upon 
the  youthful  vigor  and  animal  magnetism  of  his  —  too 
often  —  unsuspecting  victim,  who  yields  her  life  a 
living  sacrifice  upon  the  pestilential  altar  of  decay 
and  mammon.  But,  in  her  case,  the  romance  of  being 
an  old  man's  darling  is  soon  dissipated. 

Then,  again,  others  marry  because  they  are  fasci- 
nated—  this  is  claimed  to  be  the  age  of  fascination 
—  they  are  caught  "  in  the  magical  trap  of  an  auburn 
curl,"  a  saucy  lip,  a  little  foot,  a  pretty  hand,  a  merry 
eye  —  any  thing  that  tickles  the  fancy;  and  the 
enamoured  swain  is  wretched  until  he  secures  his 
enchantress. 

These  are  among  the  most  baneful  marriages  extant. 
The  woman  may  be  as  beautiful  as  Aurora,  an£  yet 
not  know  how  to  order  a  dinner  or  superintend  a 
nursery.  A  husband  of  this  kind  of  a  wife  soon 
learns  that,  — 

"  A  man  may  live  without  poetry,  music,  or  art; 
He  may  live  without  conscience;  he  may  live  without  heart; 
He  may  live  without  friends;  he  may  live  without  books; 
But  civilized  man  cannot  live  without  cooks. 


MARRIAGE  A   COPARTNERSHIP.  223 

He  may  live  without  books  —  what  is  knowledge  but  grieving, 
He  may  live  without  hope  —  what  is  hope  but  deceiving? 
He  may  live  without  love  —  what  is  passion  but  pining? 
But  where  is  the  man  who  can  live  without  dining  1 " 

A  wife's  beauty  may  be  as  short-lived  as  the  dew 
upon  the  blossom,  and  when  that  is  gone  what  is 
left  ?  A  faded  flower —  nothing  more.  Yet  if  a  man 
will  dance  he  must  needs  pay  the  fiddler.  It  is 
claimed  by  large  authority,  that  physical  beauty, 
with  men  in  search  of  wives,  carries  all  before  it. 
This  demonstrates  the  sober  fact  that  we  have  not 
yet  entered  upon  the  golden  age  of  wedlock.  I  don't 
think  we  have !  The  heart  must  not  be  divorced 
from  the  intellect.  Matrimony  must  rise  to  the 
higher  plain  of  intellectual  reciprocity  ere  we  shall 
understand  all  the  capabilities  for  good  that  are  em- 
braced in  the  marriage  relation. 

When  a  man  marries  a  woman,  he  says,  "  With  all 
my  worldly  goods  I  thee  endow."  This  it  appears  is 
only  appearance;  for  the  property  which  he  has  at 
this  time  is  considered  his  separate  estate,  and  at  his 
death  he  can  by  testamentary  law  take  it  all  away 
from  the  woman  whom  he  endowed  with  it.  Here 
is  a  mystery  which  no  feminine  sounding-line  is  long 
enough  to  fathom.  Wherever  in  the  deep  sea  of 
masculine  inconsistency  you  may  sink  it,  no  answer 
co^es  up.  But  the  essential  conclusion  upon  which 
woman  may  rest  is,  that  it  is  the  "  will  of  man." 

They  may  live  years  together,  and  yet  apparently 
add  nothing  to  the  estate :  although  it  has  increased 


224  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

in  value  all  the  time,  still  it  is  the  husband's  property, 
in  which  the  wife  has  no  community  of  interest  that 
the  law  respects.  I  am  familiar  with  one  such  case 
in  this  city.  An  acquaintance  of  mine  married  a 
lawyer  who  ostensibly  owned  a  large  amount  of  real 
estate,  and  has,  so  he  tells  her,  added  nothing  to  his 
possessions  since  the  marriage ;  and  how  is  she  to 
know  whether  his  statements  are  true  or  otherwise  ? 
He  treats  her  as  most  husbands  do  their  wives  —  in 
a  confidential,  business  point  of  view  —  like  a  fool ; 
never  lets  the  left  hand,  the  wife,  know  what  the 
right  hand  —  the  husband  —  doeth. 

Now,  to  keep  this  wife  in  proper  subjection,  this 
amiable  husband  tells  her  that  he  can  will  his  prop- 
erty in  case  he  dies  first,  so  that  she  cannot  get  an 
iota  of  it.  At  the  time  he  married  her  she  was  a 
teacher  on  good  pay,  making  a  handsome  living  by  her 
accomplished  industry ;  well  dressed,  and  a  stranger 
to  pots  and  kettles,  as  much  a  stranger  as  her  sub- 
jugator was  and  is  to  the  boot-black  kit.  Since  her 
marriage,  she  has  occupied  the  position  of  upper  ser- 
vant in  his  house,  because  he  is  too  mean  to  provide 
her  money  enough  for  household  expenses,  and  to 
pay  a  good  servant  a  fair  price.  Her  life  has  been 
tormented  out  of  her  almost,  for  the  want  of  pin- 
money.  He  thinks,  if  she  has  the  magnificent  sum 
of  1100  a  year,  it  ought  to  clothe  her  in  purple  and 
fine  wool.  They  have  no  children,  and  what  he  is 
hoarding  for,  he  alone  can  tell.  Probably  he  intends 
to  build  a  posthumous  monument  to  perpetuate  the 


MARRIAGE  A    COPARTNERSHIP.  225 

name  of  '-'•Skinner  "  —  no  tdlin\  Horace  Haws  tried 
to  make  a  "  spread-eagle  "  institute  of  some  sort,  to 
go  sounding  down  the  ages  to  his  glory ;  but  the 
flickering  flame  went  out  with  his  life.  James  Lick 
did  the  same  thing  over  again,  but  on  a  loftier 
basis,  because  he  had  more  money.  Time  'alone  will 
demonstrate  the  upshot  of  all  his  calculations.  Law- 
yers generally  get  the  lion's  share  in  the  legal  tussles 
over  colossal  estates.  They  rub  the  ears  of  relatives, 
brothers  and  sisters,  uncles  and  aunts,  mothers  and 
mothers-in-law,  fathers  and  fathers-in-law,  cousins  and 
second  cousins,  nephews  and  nieces,  grandchildren 
and  great-grandchildren,  thirty-second  cousins  and 
grand-nephews,  the  ramifications  of  whose  family-tree 
are  past  finding  out,  whose  branches  go  out  in  every 
direction,  and  then  begin  over  again.  Every  ear, 
and  every  pair  of  ears,  along  the  whole  line,  tingles 
from  the  excoriation  caused  by  the  itching  palms  of 
lawyers.  They,  the  ancestors  and  descendants,  to 
the  fourth  and  fifth  generation,  are  ready  to  risk  all 
they  have  in  this  court-game  of  chance  —  miscalled 
"justice" 

If  the  wife  were  a  partner  in  any  true  sense,  this 
farce  in  many  acts  could  not  be  played.  The  mo- 
ment a  man  marries,  the  half  of  his  entire  possessions 
should  belong  to  his  wife,  even  though  he  lived  but 
an  hour  or  a  day  after  he  had  perpetrated  the  deed, 
or  if  he  were  divorced  from  her  the  week  after.  The 
ring  should  deed,  mortgage,  and  convey  away  irrevo- 
cably the  half  of  all  that  which  a  man  was  seized  at 


226  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

the  moment  of  wedlock.  No  Benedict  should  escape. 
Then  the  reading  of  the  marriage  service  could  be 
changed  from  a  pleasing  fiction  to  a  substantial  fact, 
which  would  read  thus :  "  Beloved  Seraphina,  I  take 
thee  for  better  or  for  worse,  and  with  half  my  worldly 
goods  I  thee  endow." 

You  may  ask,  "  Should  not  this  rule  apply  to 
the  bride  as  well  ?  "  No.  "  But  why  not  ?  "  Be- 
cause a  woman  who  is  self-supporting  usually  aban- 
dons her  occupation  when  she  marries,  and  it  is  very 
difficult  to  resume  it  when  she  becomes  a  widow, 
especially  if  she  has  children  to  care  for.  Then, 
again,  a  woman's  wages  are  nearly  always  far  below 
the  price  paid  to  men  in  a  like  department  of  labor. 
But  the  most  arbitrary  rule  of  all  is  that  a  woman  of 
society  is  not  allowed  to  earn  money ;  if  she  does, 
she  is  ostracized  at  once,  while  a  man  is  looked  upon 
as  a  species  of  vagabond  if  he  does  not  turn  liis 
money  in  business  or  speculation  often  enough  to 
keep  it  bright. 

You  may  say,  again,  that  a  widow  can  manipulate 
her  fortune  through  an  agent,  a  "middle-man." 
That  is  very  true  ;  but  it  is  also  very  true,  —  sad  to 
say,  —  that,  when  she  does  this  proxy  business,  she 
generally  loses  all  she  has.  Agency  speculation, 
carried  on  by  the  subjectors  for  the  benefit  of  the 
subdued,  is  a  risky  business.  It  don't  pay.  When 
women  have  had  the  years  of  experience  that  men 
have  had,  when  they  have  confidence  in  their  indi- 
vidual strength  and  capacity,  and  when  the  burden 


MARRIAGE   A    COPARTNERSHIP.  227 

of  child-bearing  and  child-rearing  is  equally  divided, 

—  then,  and  not  till  then,  will  the  "  separate  prop- 
erty "  rule  work  well  in  both  cases. 

All  marriages  should  have  a  material  basis.  Lovers 
should  not  forget,  while  in  the  ecstasy  of  sipping 
nectar  and  ambrosia,  that  it  takes  bread  and  butter 

—  lots  of  it  too  —  to  make  bone  and  muscle  ;  and  they 
should  bear  in  mind  the  old  saw,  that  "  When  pover- 
ty comes  in  at  the  door,  love  flies  out  of  the  window." 
People  who  mate  like  the  birds,  but,  unlike  the  birds, 
have  no  summer-lands  to  migrate  to  when  the  winter 
of  adversity  overtakes  them,  are  the  ones  whom  the 
fickle  god  soonest  deserts.    Hence  comes  the  necessity 
for  the   easy  divorce-law.      And  from  this  class  of 
divorced  women,  the  loathsome  ranks  of  professional 
prostitutes  are  filled.     Dr.  Sayers  of  New  York  City 
says  that  two-thirds  of  all  that  class  of  women  who 
lead  a  life  of  shame  for  a  livelihood  have  been  married 
and  divorced,  or  have  separated  from  their  husbands. 
This  is  a  sad  commentary  on  injudicious  marriages. 

In  Germany,  when  a  man  and  woman  have  decided 
to  marry  each  other,  they  go  before  a  notary  public, 
and  make  a  sworn  statement  of  what  they  individually 
possess.  This  affidavit  is  entered  on  the  great  regis- 
ter UA*  the  town  and  county  where  they  reside.  Thus 
the  separate  estate  is  secured  to  the  survivors  without 
cavil.  If  a  girl  brings  to  the  marriage  contract  no 
more  than  twenty-five  dollars  in  money,  furniture, 
or  live  stock,  it  is  legally  set  to  her  credit ;  and  should 
she  become  widowed,  no  crafty  creditors  of  her  hus- 


228  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

band's  or  thieving  court  can  wrest  this  much  from  her 
to  pay  "  honest  debts."  When  there  is  no  evidence 
but  the  widow's,  she  stands  a  small  chance  to  get  any 
thing ;  for  she  is  not  allowed,  in  this  country,  to  testify 
to  the  fact  that  she  owned  any  thing,  even  herself, 
at  the  time  she  married  her  dear  departed.  And  if 
she  had  any  money  at  that  most  important  moment 
of  her  life,  which  she  had  placed  in  his  hands  for 
safe  keeping,  that  would  be  a  transaction  between 
husband  and  wife,  —  a  sacred  transaction,  —  which  no 
just  law  would  profane  its  equitable  fingers  by  touch- 
ing. She  might  have  misplaced  her  confidence  as  well 
as  her  money:  the  law  cannot  remedy  the  evil.  She 
would  still  have  the  same  consolation,  however,  that 
the  little  boy  had  when  he  lost  his  father:  he  said 
to  his  mother,  upon  that  sad  occasion,  "  Well,  mother, 
there's  no  great  loss  without  some  small  gain :  we 
shall  get  rid  of  Katy."  This  Katy  was  a  most  un- 
lovely nurse,  whom  the  now  powerless  subjugator  had 
persisted  in  keeping  against  the  wishes  of  his  wife 
and  children.  A  widow  thus  robbed  of  her  separate 
inheritance  by  a  deceased  husband  could  learn  wis- 
dom thereby,  and  practise  her  acquirements  on  hus- 
band number  two.  No  great  loss  without  some  small 
gain  !  Still  it  is  far  better  to  obtain  such  important 
information  before  the  knot  is  irrevocably  tied.  As 
a  usual  thing,  the  marital  state  is  far  more  material 
than  spiritual.  On  this  account  common  sense  should 
find  its  way  into  courtship  before  the  question  was 
hot  enough  to  "  pop." 


MARRIAGE  A    COPARTNERSHIP.  229 

If  marriage  were  looked  upon  more  in  the  light  of 
a  business  partnership,  where  two  people  could  be  of 
mutual  benefit  to  each  other  morally,  socially,  and 
financially,  much  of  the  sickly  sentimentality  which 
afflicts  our  daughters  would  be  done  away  with. 
The  lives  which  are  emasculated  by  fictitious  reading- 
year  by  year  is  something  appalling.  Would  that 
some  reveille  might  marshal  this  mighty  host  in 
solid  ranks,  before  women  supine,  careless,  and  in- 
different, believing  that  the  fearful  sight  might  stir 
the  latent  spark  of  energy  within  her  to  action ! 
There  is  no  happiness  for  an  idle  woman.  She  is 
imprisoned  in  the  dungeon  of  discontent.  Trashy 
novels  and  society  gossip  cannot  minister  to  the  needs 
of  diseased  and  crippled  faculties  which  are  covered 
with  rust,  and  creaking  at  every  joint  for  the  want 
of  proper  exercise. 

It  was  considered  honorable  for  women  to  labor  in 
olden  times.  Alexander  the  Great  exhibited,  in  his 
palace,  garments  made  by  his  own  mother.  The 
finest  tapestries  of  Bayeux  were  made  by  the  queen 
of  William  the  Conqueror.  Augustus  the  emperor 
would  not  wear  any  garments  except  those  that  were 
fashioned  by  some  member  of  his  royal  family. 

Labor  is  pure  gold  ;  idleness,  dross. 

It  is  a  withering  thing  for  a  man  or  woman  to  have 
nothing  to  do  ;  and  the  first  lesson  taught  should  be 
how  to  earn  an  honest  living.  Hand  and  brain  should 
be  educated  for  that  purpose.  Many  women  are 
boastfully  proud  that  they  are  ignorant  of  all  finan- 


230  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

cial,  money-making  employments.  Not  so  was  the 
accomplished  Madame  de  Stael.  She  said,  u  It  is  not 
these  writings  that  I  am  proud  of,  but  the  fact  that 
I  have  facility  in  ten  occupations,  in  any  one  of  which 
I  could  make  a  livelihood." 

A  girl  should  be  educated  with  the  thought  that 
at  a  suitable  age  she  was  to  marry,  if  she  could  find 
a  good  man  for  a  husband ;  that  the  marriage  relation 
is  the  most  natural  when  it  is  entered  upon  freely 
and  independently  by  both  parties  to  the  contract. 
But,  if  the  right  man  should  never  be  met  with,  then 
she  should  still  strive  to  become  a  worthy  factor  in 
the  economy  of  life  ;  assuming  her  place  with  a  quiet 
self-assertion,  and  maintaining  it  with  a  firm  purpose. 
Woman  must  be  made  to  feel  her  individual  impor- 
tance in  the  drama  of  life.  She  must  be  made  con- 
scious of  the  power  which  she  possesses,  but  has 
never  wielded.  She  should  be  taught  self-dependence. 
This  ought  to  be  first  and  paramount.  Then  she 
will  have  no  need  to  marry  solely  to  be  maintained. 
If  she  does  this,  then  she  is  a  deception  and  a  fraud, 
and  not  the  noble  woman  that  she  appeared  to  be.  It 
is  a  weak  woman  who  marries  because  she  is  tired  of 
self-support.  But  cruel  custom  is  the  source  of  her 
weaknesses,  her  follies,  and  her  vices.  It  compels  her 
to  overlook  the  depravity  of  her  male  associates,  and 
to  cultivate  in  herself  the  lowest  and  most  selfish 
traits  of  her  nature.  She  must  be  pleasing  to  men  ; 
and  few  men  are  pleased  with  learned  women,  self- 
poised  and  independent.  It  is  an  echo  of  their  own 


MARRIAGE  A   COPARTNERSHIP.  231 

oracular  wisdom  which  men  seek  in  women.  Spar- 
kle, not  substance,  is  most  in  demand.  What  an  error, 
and  how  wide-spread  the  evil ! 

When  marriage  arrives  at  that  standard  of  excel- 
lency which  is  recognized  as  a  legal  copartnership, 
and  which  restrains  the  husband  from  undersigning 
notes,  mortgaging  and  selling  community  estate, 
without  the  signature  of  the  wife  ;  in  short,  when  a 
husband  and  wife  stand  to  each  other  in  the  same 
position  that  two  business  partners  stand  to  each 
other,  —  then,  and  not  till  then,  will  a  wife  occupy  a 
true  position  in  the  household  and  before  the  world. 
Then  will  be  developed  her  highest  capacity  for 
doing  good.  The  power  of  a  wife  thus  poised  and 
supported  cannot  be  estimated.  Free  to  act  and 
develop  the  strong,  brave,  pure  womanhood  within 
her,  she  will  throw  to  the  winds  the  weak,  vapid 
life  which  has  chained  her  so  long,  and  mount  up  on 
wings  of  high  resolve  and  noble  purpose,  like  eagles. 
Then,  with  true  recognition  and  reverence,  she  will 
meet  the  royalty  of  manhood  with  the  royalty  of 
womanhood,  saying,  "  If  thou  art  the  world's  king, 
I  am  the  world's  queen."  Then  man  will  test  all 
his  relations  with  woman  by  the  same  code  of  im- 
partial honor  which  makes  him  honorable  among 
men ;  then  a  husband  will  cease  to  say,  "  I  will 
absorb,  rule  over,  possess,  this  creature  of  God."  It 
will  be  then  that  each  will  seek  in  the  other  their 
noblest  friend,  their  truest  and  dearest  companion, 
their  bulwark  of  defence  in  times  of  danger;  when 


232  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

the  wife  shall  revere  the  husband  because  he  is 
worthy  of  such  honor,  and  the  husband  revere  the 
wife  because  she  commands  his  reverence,  while  she 
wins  and  retains  his  love. 

But  until  the  law  is  changed  which  controls  wed- 
lock, and  those  of  the  so-called  "  weaker  sex  "  under 
its  bonds,  this  best  condition  of  wifehood  can  never 
be  reached.  Under  the  law  as  it  no\v  stands,  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  a  partnership  relation  in  the 
marriage  union.  The  man  and  woman  become  one, 
but  that  one  is  the  man  ;  for  the  rights  of  the  married 
woman  are  still  nearly  all  suspended  during  cover- 
ture, while  all  the  rights  of  the  married  man  remain 
established  and  protected  by  law,  just  as  they  were 
before  marriage.  In  spite  of  our  boasted  prog; 
and  civilization,  in  wedlock  woman  is  still  a  slave, 
because  she  is  not  a  free  agent.  She  cannot  use  a 
dollar  of  the  common  property  which  she  has  helped 
to  earn,  without  the  husband's  consent ;  she  cannot 
prosecute  a  physician  for  malpractice,  nor  a  druggist 
for  carelessly  poisoning  her,  without  the  co-operation 
of  her  husband ;  she  cannot  recover  damages  for 
defamation  of  character,  without  the  husband  joins 
in  the  suit ;  she  is  obliged  to  live  wherever  the  hus- 
band pitches  his  tent,  no  matter  how  repulsive  the 
spot:  she  has  no  power  to  resist  the  will  of  her 
subjugator.  But  what  is  to  be  done  when  a  husband 
wishes  to  live  on  one  side  of  the  river,  and  the  wife 
on  the  other  ?  Sit  in  a  boat  in  the  middle  of  the 
stream,  and  test  the  power  of  muscle  against  will  ? 


MARRIAGE  A   COPARTNERSHIP.  233 

No :  I  would  exhaust  arguments,  and  then  "  draw 
cuts."  That  is  easy  and  convenient  where  there  is  a 
match-box,  or  two  sticks ;  and  people  generally  abide 
by  the  decision  of  so  simple  a  measure. 

You  may  say  that  making  the  wife  a  legal  partner 
will  embarrass  and  cripple  the  business  transactions 
of  the  husband,  that  a  wife's  indorsement  would 
occasion  a  ruinous  delay,  &c.,  &c.  Sometimes  delay 
is  salvation  with  men  who  act  upon  impulse. 
Nothing  but  this  recognition  of  the  importance- of 
the  wife's  consent  will  lift  her  out  of  the  position  of 
a  legal  nonentity.  No  brother  can  treat  his  sister  in 
the  cavalier  manner  that  he  does  his  wife.  If  he 
transacts  business  for  his  sister,  she  must  put  her 
name  to  the  voucher,  unless  she  has  constituted  him 
her  attorney.  A  husband  can  get  the  same  permit 
to  act  for  his  wife,  in  case  of  absence,  or  a  desire  on 
her  part  to  maintain  her  old  position  still  as  a 
"  nonentity." 

In  1877  it  is  proven  in  a  court  of  justice,  that  a 
married  woman  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts  does 
not  own  her  own  clothes.  Here  are  the  comments 
of  "  The  Boston  Daily  Advertiser  "  upon  the  sub- 
ject :  "  The  old  common  law  still  reigns  a  despot  in 
Massachusetts !  The  gift  of  a  husband  to  his  wife 
is  void.  The  great  majority  of  married  women  in 
this  State  have  no  legal  title  to  the  clothes  they 
wear.  I  do  not  wonder  that  married  ladies  are 
shocked  to  find  that  this  relic  of  their  ancient  subju- 
gation and  inferiority  still  survives  in  spite  of  all  the 


234  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

modern  enactments  made  in  their  favor.  If  the 
husband  makes  the  wife  a  present  of  jewels,  furni- 
ture, wearing-apparel,  or  any  other  gift  of  real  or 
personal  property,  the  gift  is  void  in  law.  But, 
worse  than  this,  if  the  wife  lend  the  husband  her 
own  money,  and  he  give  her  an  express  written 
promise  to  pay,  the  promise  cannot  be  enforced, 
either  in  his  lifetime  against  him,  nor  after  his  death 
against  his  estate.  The  amount  of  injustice  perpe- 
trated in  this  way  cannot  be  estimated.  A  married 
woman,  by  the  repeal  of  the  old  law,  having  now 
become  capable  of  holding  property  and  making 
contracts,  what  reason  remains  that  husband  and 
wife  should  not  make  gifts  and  sales  to,  and  all 
sorts  of  contracts  with,  one  another  directly^  thus 
simply  effecting  what  they  can  now  do  as  completely 
indirectly?" 

It  is  alleged  that  such  a  change  in  law  would  aid 
husbands  to  defraud  creditors.  It  is  true  that  hus- 
bands do  sometimes  defraud  creditors  by  placing 
property  in  their  wives'  hands ;  but  the  law  does  not 
sanction  such  frauds,  anjl  would  not  tolerate  them 
if  conveyances  were  made  directly,  any  more  than  it 
does  now  when  they  are  required  to  be  made  in- 
directly ;  and  the  means  of  detecting  such  frauds 
would  be  quite  as  easy  as  under  the  present  system, 
and  probably  more  so.  It  is  further  argued  that  to 
allow  a  wedded  pair  to  enter  into  contracts  together 
would  necessarily  give  them  power  to  prosecute  suits 
in  court  against  each  other,  a  consummation  so  awful 


MARRIAGE  A   COPARTNERSHIP.  235 

as  not  to  be  thought  of  for  a  moment.  It  is  not  a 
pleasant  sight,  I  agree,  to  see  persons  who  have  been 
friends  —  and  especially  near  relatives  —  pursuing 
one  another  in  court.  Yet  no  court  has  ever  thought 
of  making  a  law  to  prevent  a  daughter  from  suing 
father  or  mother,  or  a  sister  her  brother.  And  why 
is  there  no  such  statute  ?  Simply  because  every  one 
ought  to  have  power  to  obtain  justice  from  the 
courts.  The  same  reason  applies  to  those  united  by 
wedlock  as  to  those  united  by  blood.  The  effect 
of  authorizing  such  suits  would  never  make  them 
common  ;  suits  at  law  between  near  relations  are 
never  common:  between  husband  and  wife  they 
would  be  less  frequent.  But  the  wife,  like  the 
sister  or  daughter,  ought  to  be  left  to  her  own 
judgment  whom  and  when  to  sue." 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THE  SUBJUGATION  OF  WIVES,   AND  MARTYRDOM. 
Sic  semper  tyrannis. 

THERE  was  a  time  when  the  careful  burghers 
neglected  no  method  of  strengthing  the  defences  of 
their  towns.  They  increased  the  thickness  of  tlu'ir 
walls  when  the  cannon  superseded  the  catapult.  In 
the  same  manner  have  husbands,  from  time  to  time, 
changed  their  mode  of  procedure  in  their  coercion  of 
wives. 

Wives,  bend  your  necks  to  your  husbands,  has  been 
rung  on  every  change. 

From  the  remotest  period  of  our  history,  men  set 
a  great  value  upon  women.  A  wife  was  far  more 
profitable  than  an  ordinary  slave.  Yet  the  man  in 
quest  of  a  wife  did  not  stoop  to  win  her  affection 
with  cunning  speech  and  subtle  device:  he  went 
forth  upon  his  amatory  expedition  like  a  thief  in  the 
night,  and  captured  her  by  brute-force  if  she  refused 
to  follow  him,  like  any  other  beast  of  prey.  He 
needed  her  services,  and  that  was  enough ;  she 
should  be  his  slave,  and  do  his  bidding  like  a  dog. 
Such  a  wife  knew  no  law  but  the  will  of  her  master ; 


THE  SUBJUGATION   OF    WIVES.  237 

in  him  she  lived  (if  such  an  abject  existence  can  be 
called  living),  moved,  and  had  her  being. 

After  a  time  fathers  became  so  impressed  in  re- 
gard to  the  value  of  their  daughters,  that  they  classed 
them  with  other  merchandise,  and  sold  them  to  the 
highest  bidder  in  the  open  market-place,  in  the  same 
manner  as  slaves  have  been  knocked  down  from  time 
immemorial.  Often  an  avaricious  father  would  sell 
an  unusually  attractive  daughter  half  a  dozen  times, 
to  as  many  different  suitors,  and,  by  making  some 
plausible  excuse  for  not  delivering  the  commodity  at 
the  time  of  sale,  at  last  hand  her  over  to  another  on 
the  receipt  of  an  extortionate  sum. 

With  a  quiver  full  of  handsome  daughters  those 
old  chivalric  reprobates  had  a  good  thing  of  it :  they 
bartered  their  own  flesh  and  blood,  and  that  of  their 
wives  into  the  bargain,  if  they  could  find  purchasers, 
with  as  little  compunction  as  Charles  Surface  did  his 
ancestors. 

It  never  occurred  to  the  slaveholder,  that  a  daugh- 
ter might  have  a  predilection  for  "  natural  selection  " 
in  obtaining  a  husband.  If  it  did,  he  scouted  the 
idea  that  a  woman  should  presume  to  have  a  like  or 
a  dislike  in  the  matter  of  being  wived.  It  was  sim- 
ply the  transference  of  a  right  from  one  master  to 
another.  But  this  woman  chattel  was  never  to  rise 
above  her  place,  which  was  under  the  foot  of  her 
lord.  To  fitly  symbolize  her  condition,  a  shoe  was 
given  the  bridegroom  by  the  father-in-law  to  mark 
the  transfer  of  degrading  power.  A  fallen  foe  was 


238  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

thus  degraded  by  the  heel  of  the  conqueror.  As- 
suming his  newly  acquired  prerogative,  the  husband 
playfully  tapped  his  bride  upon  the  head  with  the 
ensign  of  power,  which  said  plainer  than  words  could 
express,  "  You  are  now  mine,  body  and  soul;  to  o 
my  lightest  wish  with  fear  and  trembling;  to  brar 
my  warrior  sons,  but  to  have  no  rule  over  them  : 
to  rear  my  slave-daughters  ;  to  be  the  veriest  hoi; 
hold  drudge,  and  never  complain  ;  to  have  no  wish 
in  your  heart  but  to  serve  me  till  death  breaks  the 
fetters  which  bind  you." 

Those  wives  were  in  a  delightful  (to  the  husbands) 
state  of  subjugation.  If  by  any  insanity  they  should 
rise  in  rebellion  to  such  abject  slavery,  the  husband 
could  beat  them  with  a  pliant  stick,  the  size  and 
thickness  of  his  thumb,  into  subjection  or  into  their 
coffins  ;  it  mattered  little  which.  For  it  seems  that 
these  old-time  subjectors  exercised  the  power  of  life 
and  death  over  their  wives,  from  the  sickly  record  of 
the  fate  of  a  bride  of  a  week.  Here  is  the  condensed 
extract  of  husband-power  contained  in  eight  lines  of 
blood-curdling  doggerel,  — 

"Bought  a  wife  on  Sunday, 
Brought  her  home  on  Monday, 
Beat  her  well  on  Tuesday, 
Sick  she  was  on  Wednesday, 
Dead  she  was  on  Thursday, 
Buried  she  was  on  Friday, 
Glad  was  I  on  Saturday, 
And  now  I'll  buy  another."  * 

1  Man  is  the  only  animal  that  maltreats  or  kills  the  female  of  his 
own  species. 


THE  SUBJUGATION   OF   WIVES.  230 

When  the  domestic  rod  of  correction  had  somewhat 
lost  its  terrors,  and  the  husband  sighed  for  a  more 
public  recognition  of  his  marital  prowess,  the  bridle,  or 
brank,  was  invented.  This  instrument  of  torture  was 
a  frightful  cage  made  of  hoops  of  iron,  and  fastened  at 
the  back  of  the  neck  with  a  padlock.  This  brank  was 
placed  over  the  head  of  a  refractory  spouse,  and 
securely  locked,  while  an  iron  gag  was  pressed  into 
the  mouth  at  the  front.  In  this  manner  a  wife  and 
mother  was  led  through  the  streets  of  the  town  by 
the  beadle,  to  the  exultation  of  her  protector,  and 
the  hilarious  merriment  of  the  primitive  hoodlum, 
and  as  a  wholesome  admonition  to  all  perverse  wives. 

For  the  most  trifling  offences  they  were  stripped 
to  the  waist,  and  flogged  at  the  cart's-tail  by  the  com- 
mon hangman,  sometimes  for  a  distance  of  five  miles 
in  the  dead  of  winter,  while  the  surging  rabble 
shouted  after.  They  also  adorned  the  whipping- 
post while  a  subjugator  laid  on  the  stripes. 

The  ducking-stool  was  another  amusing  instru- 
ment of  husband-torture.  This  was  invented  for 
the  special  benefit  of  scolding  wives.  It  is  said  that 
thousands  of  people  would  assemble  to  enjoy  the 
delightful  and  ennobling  spectacle  of  seeing  a  wife 
ducked  in  the  Thames.  Sometimes  she  died  from 
the  combined  effect  of  the  chilling  bath,  shame,  and 
disgrace ;  but  what  of  that,  if  the  subjector's  wrath 
was  appeased,  and  the  great  unwashed  tickled? 
Surely  no  one  ought  to  grumble :  still  her  sucking 
babe  might  miss  her  ;  who  can  tell  ? 


240  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

Secular  punishment  for  wives  having  grown  alarm- 
ingly tame,  some  blessed  genius  immortalized  himself 
by  inventing  the  divine  cutty-stool  of  repentance, 
which  was  a  prominent  seat  in  the  house  of  God. 
Here  the  culprit  was  obliged  to  sit  in  full  view  of 
the  congregation  for  three  consecutive  sabbaths.  If 
the  sinner  happened  to  be  young  and  pretty,  it  must 
have  had  a  most  demoralizing  effect  upon  the  mascu- 
line worshippers ;  and  if  old  and  ugly  every  aggres- 
sive, waspish  husband  worked  himself  into  a  violent 
perspiration  because  it  was  neighbor  Jones's  wife  who 
was  doing  penance  instead  of  his,  who  needed  to  be 
perpetually  seated  upon  a  cutty-stool  if  she  had 
her  just  deserts.  However,  in  those  days  of  fire  and 
brimstone  punishment,  after  death  had  relieved  the 
"cutty,"  the  husband  —  even  under  such  trying 
circumstances  —  ought  to  have  been  able  to  pray  in 
serenity,  with  the  consolations  of  the  retributive 
hereafter  before  his  mind's  eye. 

What  a  keen  edge  it  must  have  given  the  sermon 
on  the  power  of  evil,  with  such  a  palpable  witness  I 
enough  to  sharpen  the  dullest  clerical  blade,  and  tip 
with  asperity  a  featherless  arrow  —  let  fly  in  either 
High  or  Low  Church,  even  though  it  were  almost' 
dead  with  respectability. 

In  1876,  under  the  head  of  "  The  Cutty-Stool 
Revived,"  appeared  this  notice  in  an  English  paper : 
"  In  a  church  in  Black  Isle,  Ross-shire,  on  a  recent 
Sunday,  a  woman  who  had  been  guilty  of  transgress- 
ing the  seventh  commandment  was  condemned  to 


THE  SUBJUGATION  OF   WIVES.  241 

the  cutty-stool,  and  sat  during  the  whole  service 
with  a  black  shawl  over  her  head."  The  record 
does  not  state  where  her  partner  in  iniquity  sat,  or 
under  what  he  hid  his  sharuefacedness — if  he  had 
any  to  hide. 

An  English  husband  brought  a  prostitute  into  his 
house,  and  confined  his  wife  to  her  room  under  pre- 
tence of  her  insanity  ;  but  the  court  held  this  to  be 
insufficient  cause  for  the  wife  to  desert  him.  Would 
the  verdict  have  been  the  same,  think  you,  if  the 
wife  had  thus  confined  her  husband,  and  installed 
her  paramour  in  his  place  ?  and  why  not  ? 

Newspapers  are  literally  filled  with  horrors,  of  which 
men  are  the  authors,  and  women  the  victims.  Wife- 
beating,  wife-murder,  rape,  and  bigamy  are  becoming 
so  common  as  scarcely  to  excite  remark.  Here  is 
one  among  the  latest :  "  Patrick  Tooley  of  New  York, 
a  laborer,  last  night  poured  a  can  of  kerosene  over 
his  wife,  because  she  said  he  was  hard  to  please.  She 
screamed  and  prayed  to  him  not  to  set  her  alight ;  but 
he  exclaimed,  '  By  G ,  you  shall  burn,  you  she- 
devil  ! '  Suiting  the  action  to  his  word,  he  struck  a 
match,  and  ignited  the  oil.  Her  piercing  screams 
roused  the  neighborhood.  When  Officer  Raleigh 
found  her  she  was  a  pitiable  sight,  great  pieces  of 
flesh  hanging  from  her  breasts  and  arms.  Her  face 
and  hands  were  burned  as  black  as  jet.  She  died 
before  morning  in  the  most  heart-rending  agony." 

The  alarming  increase  of  insults  and  personal  out- 
rages inflicted  upon  women  must  be  attributed  to  a 


242  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

public  sentiment  hostile  to  their  individuality  and 
equality  of  rights ;  and  to  the  subjection  and  disfran- 
chisement  of  women,  which  is  so  injurious  to  society, 
destructive  of  morals,  corrupting  to  politics,  and  a 
reproach  to  Christianity. 

Husbands  still  in  some  instances,  as  of  old,  hold 
the  power  of  life  and  death  over  their  wives.  This 
power  is  more  indirectly  exercised,  perhaps,  but  the 
results  are  the  same.  To  substantiate  these  premi 
I  will  state  two  cases  in  the  land  of  the  free ;  one 
North,  one  South.  First  —  in  1860,  in  the  town  of 
Manteno,  Kankakee  County,  111.,  a  sane  Christian  wife 
and  mother  was  torn  from  her  babe  eighteen  months 
old,  and  her  five  other  children,  by  the  order  of  her 
husband,  the  Right  Rev.  Theophilus  Packard,  and 
taken  by  brute  force  to  the  Jacksonville  Insane  A  -  - 
lum,  Illinois,  and  there  shut  in  with  howling  maniacs 
for  three  terrible  years.  Nothing  more  conclush 
needed  to  show  that  the  woman  was  in  the  vigor  of 
sanity,  than  that  she  kept  her  wits  about  her  during 
such  a  fearful  ordeal,  which  was  enough  to  cloud  the 
brightest  intellect  and  wreck  the  most  robust  consti- 
tutions. 

Only  sixteen  years  ago,  in  broad  daylight,  this  kid- 
napping of  a  perfectly  sane  woman  was  permitted. 
Why  ?  Because  there  was  no  law  to  restrain  the  hand 
of  her  legal  subjector,  human  —  and  it  is  claimed  — 
divine.  This  modern  husband  hid  his  Satanic  wolf- 
ship  under  the  pure  lawn  of  the  Church  militant. 

Did  he  succeed  in  killing  her  ?    No.    But  that  was 


THE  SUBJUGATION   OF    WIVES  243 

no  fault  of  his,  for  that  appears  to  have  been  his  in- 
tention. The  record  shows  that  he  tried  by  every 
available  means  to  kill  both  body  and  soul.  Why 
did  this  expounder  of  Christ's  doctrines  thus  treat  a 
good  wife  and  a  tender  mother  ?  whv  ?  Because  he 
could  not  come  out  of  their  wordy  combats  on  reli- 
gious subjects,  first  best.  He  could  not  yield  his 
prerogative.  He  would  resort  to  other  more  po- 
tent means  to  subjugate  the  "  woman."  He  was  a 
true  disciple  of  Paul,  a  s-tanch  standard-bearer  of 
his  faith. 

O  Paul,  Paul !  what  mountains  of  iniquity  are  laid 
at  your  door !  what  seas  of  wormwood  and  gall  your 
words  have  engendered  among  the  enlightened  peo- 
ples of  the  earth ! 

Why  are  not  modern  husbands  as  tenacious  about 
the  "  good  old  way  "  in  every  thing  else  ?  Why  don't 
they  clothe  themselves  in  skins  instead  of  fine  linen  ? 
Why  don't  they  live  in  tents,  instead  of  sumptuous 
palaces  ?  Why  don't  they  plough  with  a  crooked  stick, 
instead  of  a  g'ang  ?  Why  don't  they  eat  with  their 
fingers,  and  lick  off  the  platter,  instead  of  using  knives 
and  dishcloths  ?  Why  don't  they  worship  in  God's 
first  temples,  instead  of  behind  bronze  church  doors, 
under  fretted  roof  with  pillared  aisles,  where  the  poor 
—  God  help  them  —  dare  not  enter  ?  Sweet,  loving, 
gentle,  protecting  subjugators,  you  are  not  consistent. 
That  most  rare  jewel  is  not  set  like  a  flaming  brand 
in  your  foreheads. 

But  to  return  to  the  exemplary  Theophilus,  the 


244     '  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

divine  wife-tamer,  the  mundane  God-head  of  the 
household. 

When  his  wife  asked  him  why  he  did  such  a  wicked 
deed  as  to  separate  her  from  all  she  held  most  dear, 
to  incarcerate  her  in  a  living  tomb,  —  a  madhouse,  — 
he  made  answer,  — 

"  I  am  doing  as  the  laws  of  Illinois  allow  me  to  do. 
You  have  no  protection  in  law  but  myself,  and  I  am 
protecting  you  now.  It  is  for  your  good  I  am  doing 
this.  I  want  to  save  your  soul.  You  don't  believe 
in  total  depravity  "  (what  a  marvel,  with  such  an  in- 
carnate embodiment  before  her !)  "  and  I  want  to 
make  you  right." 

Then  she  continued,  "  Does  not  the  Constitution 
defend  the  right  of  private  judgment  to  all  American 
citizens  ?  " 

44  Yes,  to  all  citizens  it  does  defend  the  right.  But 
you  are  not  a  citizen ;  while  a  married  woman,  you 
are  a  legal  nonentity,  without  even  a  soul  in  law.  In 
short,  you  are  dead  as  to  any  legal  existence  while  a 
married  woman,  and  therefore  have  no  legal  protec- 
tion as  a  married  woman."  I  have  taken  these  facts 
from  Mrs.  Packard's  able  work,  "  Modern  Persecu- 
tion." 

Under  the  head  of  "  Charities,"  there  was  a  law 
passed  in  Illinois,  in  1851,  which  reads  thus :  4  Mar- 
ried women  and  infants  who,  in  the  judgment  of  the 
medical  superintendent  (meaning  the  superintendent 
of  the  Insane  Asylum),  are  evidently  insane  or  dis- 
tracted,  may  be  entered  or  detained  in  the  hospital 


THE  SUBJUGATION  OF   WIVES.  ,       245 

on  the  request  of  the  husband  of  the  woman  or  the 
guardian  of  the  child,  without  the  evidence  of  insanity 
required  in  other  cases." 

Hon.  S.  S.  Jones  of  St.  Charles,  III.,  thus  remarks 
upon  this  act :  "  A  corrupt  husband,  with  money 
enough  to  corrupt  a  superintendent,  can  get  rid  of  a 
wife  as  effectually  as  was  ever  done  in  a  more  bar- 
barous age.  The  superintendent  may  be  corrupted 
either  with  money  or  influence,  that  he  thinks  will 
give  him  position,  place,  or  emoluments.  Is  not  this 
a  pretty  law  to  incorporate  into  our  statutes  ?  Why 
not  confine  the  husband  at  the  instance  of  the  wife, 
as  well  as  the  wife  at  the  instance  of  the  husband  ? 
The  wife  had  no  voice  in  making  such  a  monstrous 
law. 

"  Who,  being  a  man,  and  seeing  this  section  in  the 
Statute  Book  of  Illinois,  under  the  general  head  of 
'  Charities,1  does  not  blush  and  hang  his  head  for  very 
shame  at  legislative  perversion  of  so  holy  a  term  ? 
I  have  no  doubt,  if  the  truth  of  the  matter  were 
known,  this  act  was  passed  at  the  special  instance  of 
the  superintendent.  A  desire  for  power !  What  is  a 
married  woman's  protection  under  such  a  statute 
law  ?  Is  she  not  allowed  counter  testimony  from  a 
physician  of  her  own  choice,  or  can  she  not  demand 
a  trial  of  some  kind,  to  show  whether  the  charge  of 
insanity  brought  against  her  is  true  or  false  ? 

"  Nay,  verily.  The  statute  expressly  states  that  the 
judgment  of  the  medical  superintendent,  to  whom 
the  husband's  request  is  made,  is  all  that  is  required 


246      .  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

for  him  to  incarcerate  his  wife  for  any  indefinite 
period  of  time.  Neither  she,  her  children,  nor  her 
relatives,  have  any  voice  at  all  in  the  matter.  Her 
imprisonment  may  be  life-long,  for  any  thing  she  or 
her  friends  can  do  for  her  to  prevent  it.  If  the  hus- 
band has  money  or  influence  enough  to  corrupt  the 
officials,  he  can  carry  out  his  single  wishes  concern- 
ing her  life  destiny."  It  is  due  to  the  citizens  of  the 
State  of  Illinois  to  say,  that  through  the  indefatig- 
able labors  of  Mrs.  Packard,  aided  and  abetted  by 
able  legislators  and  the  governor,  the  cruel  law  of 
1851  was  repealed  in  1866,  and  the  "  Personal  Lib- 
erty Bill  "  took  its  place  upon  the  Statute-Books  of 
Illinois. 

I  am  told  that  there  are  sane  wives  to-day  drag- 
ging out  an  utterly  hopeless  existence  at  Stockton 
Insane  Asylum,  California,  kept  there  by  moneyed 
subjugators  ;  that  these  husbands  have  become  weary 
of  legitimate  life,  and  have  taken  this  easy  method 
of  bringing  about  the  change  that  is  so  desirable. 
Forbidden  fruit  is  sweet:  yet  when  purchased  at 
such  a  price,  I  should  think  it  would  turn  to  dust 
within  the  grasp.  This  brings  me  to  my  — 

Second,  "  Dishonor  and  Death"  —  In  the  month 
of  June,  1876,  at  Beaufort,  S.  C.,  the  lovely  young 
wife  of  a  government  officer  was  discovered  by 
her  hunband  to  have  a  too  ardent  friend  in  the 
person  of  a  brother  officer.  Her  protector  inter- 
cepted letters  which  passed  between  the  friends, 
and  with  these  weapons  charged  home  upon  his  vie- 


THE  SUBJUGATION  OF   WIVES.        .  247 

tim.  She  confessed,  in  the  presence  of  a  mutual 
friend,  that  she  had  broken  her  marriage  vow.  Upon 
this  statement,  the  husband  at  once  separated  from 
her,  taking  their  only  child,  a  little  girl,  a  mere 
infant,  with  him.  The  wretched  mother  was  too 
polluted,  with  her  one  error,  her  one  lover,  to  touch 
the  hem  of  his  PURE  and  undefiled  garment,  or  to 
caress  her  darling  child. 

Whose  palm,  husband's  or  wife's,  think  you,  was 
the  cleanest,  purest,  whitest,  in  this  respect  ?  Why 
did  not  he  too  make  a  confession  before  that  mutual 
friend  ?  Perhaps  he  had  none  to  make.  Perhaps  ? 
Public  Opinion,  that  equitable  criterion,  was  loud- 
mouthed in  its  sympathy  for  the  dishonored  hus- 
band, while  it  rolled  the  follies  of  the  wife  as  a  sweet 
morsel  under  its  tongue. 

But  she,  dishonored,  deserted,  forlorn,  preferred 
an  ounce  of  laudanum  and  a  navy  revolver  to  the 
world's  cold  scorn,  —  the  virtuous  world,  and  its  vir- 
tuous subjugators. 

The  record  states  that  probably  the  gallant  officer 
will  abandon  his  position,  and  "  seek  new  scenes." 
If  he  possessed  a  spark  of  manhood,  let  alone  gal- 
lantry, he  would  have  taken  his  erring  (no  knowing 
TV  hat  caused  her  to  err:  his  history  is  not  given) 
wife  by  the  hand,  and  said  to  her,  "  I  too  have  sinned, 
I  too  have  broken  my  marriage  vow ;  but  in  new 
scenes  we  will  forgive  and  forget  —  the  past,  and  be 
true  to  ourselves,  and  therefore  to  each  other,  in  the 
future.  We  will  not  part,  because  we  have  taken 


248  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

each  the  other  for  better  or  for  worse.  We  will  go 
on  together." 

That  would  have  been  honest,  brave,  and  true, 
worth}'  of  an  officer,  a  man,  a  husband,  a  father. 
But  as  it  was,  he  played  the  fool  and  the  coward ;  and 
his  wife's  blood  is  upon  his  craven  soul,  and  cries  to 
Heaven  for  revenge,  as  much  as  though  he  had  shed 
it  with  his  own  hand.  He  drove  her  forth  to  death. 
But  the  great  eye  of  the  pitiless  world,  and  the 
brotherhood  of  subjugators,  was  upon  him.  Public 
opinion  must  not  go  to  the  wall.  The  order  of  the 
day  is  to  reason  from  without,  and  not  from  within. 
Consult "  folks,"  and  not  "  heart."  Starve  if  need  be, 
but  keep  up  appearances.  Bury  dead  hopes  under  a 
wreath  of  smiles,  and  weave  fresh  garlands  over  the 
crater  of  despair.  But  do  no  natural,  spontaneous 
act,  lest  it  be  "  vulgar." 

Question  no  act  of  a  husband,  however  diabolical, 
for  it  is  in  the  breast  of  every  man  to  be  master. 
No  matter  how  inferior  he  may  be  to  the  woman  who 
bears  his  name,  and  suckles  his  "  fools,"  he  is  dig- 
nior  persona,  and  runs  his  little  race  with  many  a 
grotesque  antic,  —  a  living  embodiment  of  Darwin's 
theory. 

Absolutism  is  one  of  the  original  sins  inwrought 
in  man's  nature,  and  it  has  never  been  uprooted  by 
the  harrow  of  civilization. 

As  we  have  seen,  our  remote  subjugators  held 
wives  as  only  fit  for  beasts  of  burden,  and  "  breeders 
of  sinners."  When  woman  came  timidly  forward, 


THE  SUBJUGATION   OF    WIVES.  249 

and  slaked  her  thirst  at  the  fountain  of  knowledge, 
the  legal  cannon  took  the  place  of  the  murderous 
social  and  legal  catapult.  Although  woman  has  risen 
from  the  position  of  a  favorite  slave  to  that  of  ari 
enslaved  favorite,  still  she  is  not  a  freeman  under 
the  law,  but  a  bondman.  Marriage  as  it  now  exists 
is  another  species  of  bondage,  irreconcilable  with  the 
spirit  and  enlightenment  of  the  present  age.  Wed- 
lock should  leave  each  party  to  the  contract  equally 
free  ;  it  should  be  for  the  mutual  benefit  of  both 
parties,  in  reality  as  well  as  in  name.  The  relation 
of  husband  and  wife  is,  like  every  thing  else  in 
nature,  twofold.  The  husband  is  head  of  his  busi- 
ness outside,  while  the  wife  should  be  the  head  of 
the  domestic  department.  A  man  is  as  much  out  of 
place  lording  it  over  the  intricate  machinery  of  the 
household  as  a  bull  in  a  china-shop,  or  as  his  wife 
would  be  in  his  office  down  town,  dictating  to  hia 
clerks. 

There  must  be  two  heads  to  the  marriage  firm  in- 
stead of  one,  if  we  would  arrive  at  the  best  results 
of  marriage.  The  theory  that  one  head  is  better 
than  two  heads  should  have  been  exploded  long  ago. 
The  old  saw  bluntly  argues  that  two  heads  are  better 
than  one,  if  one  is  a  sheep-head. 

When  men  come  down  from  their  stilts,  they  will 
be  astonished  to  see  how  often  the  sheep-head  is  on 
the  masculine  shoulders. 

The  husband  holds  undisputed  sway  in  his  legiti- 
mate realm.  So  the  wife  should  be  the  sovereign 


250  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

queen  in  hers.  It  is  only  a  sneak  who  interfeies 
with  her  prerogative. 

A  lover  obeys  his  Dulcinia's  slightest  wish ;  but 
the  moment  the  "shoe  is  plucked  off"  there  is  a 
transfer  of  power.  "A  man  will  sigh  and  fawn 
around  a  woman  for  months,  perhaps  years,  celebrate 
her  unparalleled  wisdom  in  bad  rhymes,  lose  flesh 
and  spirit  if  she  frowns,  kneel  to  her  as  the  Hindoo 
to  his  idol,  and  grovel  in  utter  abasement  before  her 
conceded  superiority  ;  and  then  when  he  is  permitted 
to  put  the  circlet  of  power  upon  her  finger  —  as  if 
by  magic  —  she  grows  imbecile,  idiotic,  unable  to  act 
and  judge  for  herself;  loses  her  power  to  control 
her  own  property  and  earnings,  even  when  the  law 
permits  her  to  do  so." 

The  common  law  recognizes  the  inability  of  the 
wife  to  judge  of  what  is  best  for  her  to  eat,  drink, 
and  wear ;  and  will  punish,  by  damages  awarded  the 
husband,  any  one  who  takes  advantage  of  her  idiocy 
in  that  respect.  The  husband,  under  this  law,  can 
recover  damages  of  the  vender  of  an  article  which 
he  did  not  approve.  Thus,  if  a  greengrocer  sell  a 
wife  colicky  cabbage  instead  of  mild  squash,  the 
husband  can  make  him  smart  for  it.  But  the  wife 
has  no  corresponding  action  against  a  rumseller,  a 
confidence  operator,  or  swindler  of  any  name  or 
nature,  for  throwing  her  husband  into  bankruptcy 
by  dishonest  manipulation. 

A  drunken  husband,  whom  the  wife  supports,  can 
beat  her,  steal  her  wages,  and  beggar  her  children, 


THE  SUBJUGATION  OF    WIVES.  251 

and  she  has  no  legal  protection  against  him  ;  and,  if 
she  has  separate  property,  she  is  liable  for  his  debts. 
Why  should  a  wife  answer  for  the  indigence  of  one 
whose  lawful  privilege  it  is  to  strip  her  of  her  own 
means  of  support  without  her  consent  ?  But  the  old 
law  expressly  says,  "  All  that  a  woman  hath  apper- 
tained to  her  husband.  The  will  of  the  wife  is  sub- 
ject to  the  will  of  the  husband." 

The  theory  of  the  common  law  is  that  a  woman 
needs  to  know  nothing  but  how  to  get  a  husband  — 
he  knows  it  all.  She  becomes  like  an  infant,  utterly 
irresponsible  for  every  thing  she  does.  No,  not 
every  thing :  if  she  has  done  any  thing  worthy  of 
prison  or  hanging,  the  law  deems  her  of  sufficient 
mental  capacity  to  answer  for  that,  but  adjudges  the 
subjector  the  vicarious  sufferer  for  all  else.  What  a 

fall  from 

u  A  perfect  woman,  nobly  planned, 
To  warn,  to  comfort,  and  command  "! 

All  women  are  still  under  subjugation  to  the  arbi- 
trary rule  of  some  man,  at  the  hearthstone,  in  th« 
Church,  and  in  the  State.  V»roman  is  still  a  slave. 
The  manacles  which  bind  her  may  be  wound  with 
golden  thread,  and  padded  with  velvet :  nevertheless 
they  are  manacles  still.  But  too  often  they  are 
neither  wound,  padded,  nor  concealed  ;  and  then  they 
sink  deep  into  the  galled  and  quivering  flesh  of  the 
powerless  sufferer. 

If  a  wife  does  not  live  under  the  rod  and  slipper, 
as  of  old,  she  is  still  wed  with  a  ring,  another  symbol 


252  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

of  fetters  and  bondage.  She  is  made  to  promise  to 
obey  with  her  lips,  when  her  heart — it  is  to  be  hoped 
—  is  far  from  it.  One  should  obey  the  voice  of  God 
within.  —  their  own  conscience,  —  and  not  be  sub- 
jected to  the  will  of  another.  Each  soul  should  walk 
by  its  own  light. 

Man  has  been  a  usurper  since  the  day  he  was 
driven  out  of  the  Garden.  He  has  walled  himself 
about  and  sentinelled  the  outposts  with  might,  not 
right.  But  when  women  rouse  themselves  from  the 
Lethean  apathy  of  ages,  the  situation  will  become 
more  and  more  untenable,  until  at  last  the  walls  of 
masculine  power  will  crumble,  and  adult  humanity 
will  go  forth  unfettered  and  free.  To  learn  what 
women  have  suffered  at  the  hands  of  men,  we  have 
only  to  turn  over  the  pages  of  ancient  and  modern 
history,  and  read  what  the  martyrdom  of  the  daring 
ones  has  been. 

What  was  the  fate  of  the  Maid  of  Orleans,  the 
fearless  heroine  who  redeemed  France  ?  Did  not  the 
young  king  whom  she  crowned  at  Rheirns  abandon 
her  to  the  justice  of  the  enemies'  courts,  and  to  the 
righteous  judges  of  those  courts,  —  to  priest  and 
prelate  ?  Did  he  ever  speak  a  word,  lift  a  finger, 
stir  a  foot,  to  rescue  this  young  and  lovely  woman, 
to  whom  he  owed  his  throne  and  kingdom,  from  the 
fagots  and  the  stake? 

Oh  the  base  ingratitude  which  abandoned  her  to 
the  brutal,  blind  wickedness  of  men  whose  poignant 
animosities  proclaimed  her  as  God-forsaken  and 


THE  SUBJUGATION   OF    WI^ES.  25? 

Devil-inspired  !  —  Avho  vehemently  accused  her  of 
heinous  crimes  savoring  of  heresy ;  whose  malignant 
spite  would  be  avenged  on  a  woman  who  had  brought 
their  pride  to  the  dust  by  her  marvellous  victories 
won  by  her  bravery  and  the  pure  lightning  of  her 
enthusiasm,  which  had  kindled  a  flame  that  flashed 
like  a  meteor  above  the  midnight  of  conflict  and 
despair !  Where  lies  the  blackest  shame  of  Jeanne 
d1  Arc's  cruel  tragedy  ?  with  Charles  VII.,  who  aban- 
doned her  ?  with  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  and  Jean 
of  Luxembourg,  who  sold  her  ?  with  the  English 
council,  who  delivered  her  up  to  the  Church  ?  or  with 
her  ecclesiastical  judges,  who  condemned  her  ? 

O  damning  truth  !  Princes  of  her  own  nation 
betrayed  her  to  death,  and  priests  of  her  own  nation 
accomplished  her  death.  Of  the  English  lords,  on 
whom  recoiled  the  deep  dishonor  of  it,  the  English 
sage  might  have  been  speaking  when  he  said,  — 

"  How  oft  the  sight  of  means  to  do 
111  deeds,  makes  ill  deeds  done!  " 

At  the  opening  of  the  trial  of  this  girl  of  seven- 
teen, there  sat  on  the  tribunal,  as  counsellors  or  as 
assessors,  fifteen  doctors  of  divinity,  four  doctors  of 
canon  law,  seven  bachelors  of  divinity,  twelve 
bachelors  of  canon  law,  four  licentiates  of  civil  law, 
and  forty-two  ecclesiastics,  of  whom  all  but  eight 
belonged  to  the  body  of  secular  clergy.  Eighty - 
four  long-robed,  erudite  braves  arrayed  against  an 
unlettered  child  that  could  not  write  her  own  name : 


254  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

what  a  spectacle  !  She  felt  the  bad  atmosphere  of 
their  malice,  hatred,  and  revenge  pressing  all  round 
her;  but  she  stood  valiantly  on  her  own  defence, 
showing  to  those  heavenly  judges  as  intrepid  a  coun- 
tenance as  ever  she  had  shown  to  her  enemies  on  the 
secular  battle-field. 

She  was  neither  suffered  by  her  holy  condemners 
to  hear  mass,  receive  the  sacrament  of  the  altar,  nor 
to  go  to  confession,  which  was  a  grievous  trial;  for 
she  was  eminently  devout.  When  the  justice  of  the 
Church  laid  hold  on  a  victim,  woe  betide  the  wretcli 
who  dared  venture  to  impugn  her  motives  or  her 
tender  mercies  !  It  suffered  no  interference  with  its 
pious  hatreds. 

For  five  months  this  child,  with  the  stigma  of 
woman  upon  her,  languished  in  her  prison-house,  — 
the  castle  of  Beaurevois,  —  suffering  every  indignity 
from  her  men-jailers.  She  was  chained  by  her  feet 
to  a  log — a  ponderous  log  —  of  wood  while  walking; 
sleeping,  she  was  ironed  by  the  legs  with  two  pieces 
of  heavy  fetters  locked  to  the  bed.  She  slept  in  her 
prison  clothes,  as  she  had  slept  on  the  march  with 
the  army,  while  three  English  guards  kept  vigil.  A 
royal  equerry  was  her  chief  keeper.  Besides  these 
three  shut  in  with  her  at  night,  two  other  subju- 
gators sentinelled  her  prison  door  outside.  It  took 
five  stalwart  men  and  two  pairs  of  strong  iron  fetters 
to  guard  this  prize,  whose  price  was  above  a  king's 
ransom. 

There  was  one  maa   called   to  take  part  in  this 


THE  SUBJUGATION  OF   WIVES.  255 

disgraceful  farce,  misnamed  a  trial,  who  was  noble 
enough  to  condemn  the  illegality  of  the  whole  pro- 
ceedings ;  a  famous  Norman  lawyer  by  the  name  of 
Lohier.  Said  he,  "  In  the  first  place,  it  has  not  the 
form  of  an  ordinary  trial ;  in  the  second,  you  are 
carrying  it  on  with  closed  doors,  where  the  council 
and  assistants  have  not  full  and  free  liberty  to  speak ; 
in  the  third,  you  treat  in  it  of  things  concerning  the 
honor  of  the  king  of  France,  of  whose  party  the 
Maid  is,  without  calling  him,  or  any  in  his  name  ; 
and,  in  the  last,  neither  bill  nor  articles  have  been 
given  to  the  accused,  as  the  law  in  trials  for  the  faith 
requires,  nor  any  council  to  direct  her,  who  is  but  a 
simple  girl  and  a  minor,  in  answering  the  masters 
and  doctors  in  such  great  and  delicate  matters  as 
those  she  calls  her  4  revelations.1  For  each  and  all 
of  these  reasons,  your  trial  seems  to  me  invalid :  they 
will  catch  her  in  her  own  words.  She  sa}Ts  of  her 
'  voices?  I  am  certain,  instead  of,  It  seems  to  me.  The 
latter  would  not  condemn  her.  They  are  impelled 
by  hatred  to  destroy  her." 

She  prayed  in  vain  to  see  the  Pope,  or  to  be 
allowed  a  military  trial.  All  was  denied  her,  al- 
though she  was  a  person  of  such  high  chivalry  that 
there  was  no  knight  in  Christendom  whose  fame 
overshadowed  hers.  Bv  all  the  ordinary  courtesy  of 
war,  she  was  entitled  to  the  privileges  of  a  prisoner 
of  war.  She  had  been  a  generous  foe,  if  a  resolute 
and  successful  foe.  Neither  cruelty  nor  treachery 
could  be  laid  to  her  chargo.  Her  life  was  stainless, 


256  PROBATE   CONFISCATION 

her  brief  career  most  glorious.  But  her  persecutors 
never  rested  until  the  ascending  smoke  of  her  tor- 
ment blessed  their  vision ;  until  the  red-tongued  flames 
licked  up  her  blood,  and  her  fair  young  face  was 
scorched  and  blackened  by  the  fires  of  martyrdom  ; 
until  the  freed  spirit,  that  no  manacles  of  man  could 
chain,  burst  through  the  tortured  cinders,  upward, 
upward,  to  realms  of  peace  and  rest. 

'*  Oh,  change!  oh,  wondrous  change! 

Burst  are  the  prison-bars: 
This  moment  there  so  low, 

So  agonized,  and  now  —  beyond  the  stars. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

THE  HISTORY  OF   A  PET  DOG. 

Parvum  parva  decent. 

I  GIVE  the  history  of  Jack,  not  because  he  differs 
materially  from  any  other  well-bred  dog,  but  to  show 
what  men  —  who  call  themselves  honorable  —  will  do 
to  persecute  a  woman  who  dares  to  claim  her  own 
property  wherever  she  can  find  it,  in  spite  of  mascu- 
line pomposity  and  time-honored  subjectors. 

Some  time  during  the  summer  of  1870,  Mr.  Stow 
purchased  Jack  of  a  stable-man,  paying  five  dollars 
for  him.  My  husband  was  very  fond  of  dogs,  and 
he  had  taken  a  great  fancy  to  this  one,  a  large-sized 
black-and-tan  terrier.  We  were  summering  in  Oak- 
land at  the  time  of  the  purchase.  He  said  to  me 
when  he  brought  him  home,  "  I  have  found  one  of 
the  finest  dogs  of  his  kind  I  ever  saw."  I  replied, 
"  Why  did  you  get  another  dog  while  we  are  broken 
up  housekeeping  ?  "  We  were  living  in  a  furnished 
house,  and  had  one  black-and-tan  already,  which  was 
quite  care  enough  for  me,  particularly  when  we  were 
boarding  at  a  hotel ;  and  besides,  we  never  went  any- 
where to  be  gone  over  night,  but  that  the  little  dog 

257 


258  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 


went  too.  ^ar  an(^  steamboat  porters  were 
always  on  the  alert  for  him.  It  mattered  not  how 
deftly  he  was  smuggled  out  of  the  carriage  into 
cabin  or  car:  they  knew  he  was  there  among  the 
wraps  somewhere.  But  little  Gyp's  doggish  dignity 
was  never  outraged  by  a  moment's  stay  in  baggage.- 
car  or  porter's  berth. 

Mr.  Stow  replied  to  my  question,  "  Jack  is  to  be 
an  office-dog.  I  only  brought  him  home  to  let  you 
see  what  a  beauty  he  is."  But,  as  "  the  best-laid 
plans  of  mice  and  men  gang  aft  aglee,"  so  did  my 
husband's  plans  in  regard  to  Jack.  He  had  not  been 
in  the  office  more  than  three  weeks,  before  he  was 
set  upon  by  a  canine  subjugator  several  time- 
than  himself,  —  might,  not  right,  —  and  nearly  killed. 

Mr.  Stow  with  much  difficulty,  and  with  the  aid 
of  a  carriage  to  and  from  the  depots,  got  the  badly 
maimed  dog  home;  and,  for  several  weeks  there- 
after, Jack  remained  at  the  house,  an  interesting  in- 
valid. And,  like  all  other  male  invalids,  he  was  very 
exacting.  Blankets  were  arranged  in  a  Turkish 
chair  in  my  chamber  for  a  suitable  bed  for  the  suffer- 
er ;  for  on  no  account  would  Mr.  Stow  listen  to  the 
idea  that  the  dog  could  be  accommodated  with  a 
room  by  himself.  He  argued  that  Jack  was  very 
much  attached  to  him,  and  that  a  separation  at  night 
would  retard  the  recovery  of  his  pet.  Therefore  I 
had  his  company  both  day  and  night.  He  could  not 
move  at  first  without  assistance  ;  and  my  servants 
considered  it  somewhat  out  of  their  line  to  carry  a 


THE  HISTORY  OF  A  PET  DOG.  259 

dog  that  weighed  twenty-four  pounds  up  and  down 
stairs  several  times  a  day.  It  was  done,  however ; 
and  when  he  was  quite  well  again,  and  went  back  to 
the  office  during  the  day,  the  night  generally  found 
him  in  Oakland.  Why  ?  Because  Mr.  Stow  said  it 
would  break  the  poor  old  fellow's  heart  if  he  could 
not  see  me  every  day,  and  that  I  had  entirely  usurped 
his  place  in  the  heart  of  the  affectionate  creature. 
However,  I  suspect  that  it  was  the  nice  dinner  taken 
from  off  the  family  roast,  which  he  was  sure  to  get 
with  Gyp,  and  Poll  the  cat.  From  that  time  forward, 
he  never  lost  his  position  as  an  honorable  member  of 
the  Stow  family,  until  his  master's  death.  At  that 
time  all  things  were  changed. 

It  is  claimed  that  Mr.  Stow,  when  he  was  dying, 
gave  Jack  to  Dr.  Howard  of  Los  Angeles,  although 
my  husband  had  given  the  dog  to  me,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  my  sister  and  another  person,  soon  after  he 
came  into  his  possession.  I  had  complained  of  the 
extra  care  of  having  a  sick  dog  to  nurse;  and  Mr. 
Stow  replied,  "  Well,  my  dear,  I  will  make  you  a 
present  of  Jack ;  and  when  you  get  tired  of  him, 
Howard  (a  former  employee  of  Mr.  Stow's)  can  have 
him." 

Sister  Gertie,  at  whose  house  my  husband  lived 
and  died  in  my  absence  in  Europe,  was  very  much 
attached  to  Jack,  and  greatly  surprised  that  Mr. 
Stow  should  have  given  him  to  any  one,  under  any 
circumstances,  and  particularly  when  he  was  no 
longer  his  to  give.  When  I  learned  that  Howard 


260  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

claimed  the  dog,  I  at  once  wrote  and  requested  him 
(Howard)  to  leave  Jack  at  my  sister's  until  my 
return.  He  complied  with  my  wishes  on  the  subject, 
and  the  dog  did  not  go  to  Los  Angeles  until  my  sis- 
ter broke  up  housekeeping. 

At  the  time  I  sent  Jack  to  the  doctor,  I  said  to 
Gertie,  "  Whenever  you  want  Jack,  you  shall  have 
him ;  for  he  is  my  dog.  I  have  a  prior  claim  of  own- 
ership. He  was  given  to  me,  as  you  know  ;  besides, 
my  care  of  him  evidently  saved  his  life  at  the  time 
he  was  so  badly  hurt."  Last  June  I  paid  a  visit  to 
Los  Angeles,  with  the  intention  of  bringing  Jack 
home  with  me.  I  called  upon  Mrs.  Howard,  and 
found,  to  my  regret,  that  the  doctor  was  absent.  I 
said  to  her,  "  I  am  very  sorry  the  doctor  is  from  home, 
because  I  wish  to  take  Jack  to  San  Francisco.  You 
are  blessed  with  three  little  ones,  and  that  should  fill 
your  cup  of  domestic  happiness  without  Jack.  I 
have  lost  all  the  fortune  which  belonged  to  my  hus- 
band and  myself,  and  I  would  like  to  have  the  dog 
back.  I  am  going  East  whenever  I  can  get  free  from 
the  Probate  Court,  and  wish  to  give  him  to  my  sister. 
She  loves  Jack  very  much.  She  was  never  paid  one 
farthing  by  the  honorable  executors  for  taking  care 
of  my  husband  during  his  last  illness,  and  I  think 
this  much  she  ought  to  have."  Mrs.  Howard  replied, 
"  Mrs.  Stow,  if  you  want  the  dog,  you  shall  certainly 
take  him  ;  for  no  one  has  as  strong  a  claim  upon  him 
as  you  have.  I  will  stand  between  you  and  all  harm. 
The  doctor  will  certainly  respect  my  decision."  I 


THE  HISTORY  OF  A   PET  DOG.  2G1 

then  said,  "  Write  to  him,  and  get  his  consent."  She 
complied  with  my  request,  but  there  came  no  answer 
to  her  letter ;  and,  as  silence  gives  consent,  I  brought 
away  the  dog,  saying,  "  I  will  take  him  up  on  a  visit; 
and,  when  the  doctor  is  in  San  Francisco,  he  can  see 
me  in  person  about  the  matter." 

At  that  time  it  was  not  my  intention  to  raise  the 
question  of  ownership,  or  to  keep  the  dog  unless 
Howard  was  perfectly  willing  to  have  me.  I  had  said 
nothing  to  my  sister  upon  the  subject,  But  I  never, 
for  a  moment,  doubted  that  if  I  told  Howard  that  I 
wanted  Jack,  but  that  he  would  at  once  relinquish  all 
claims  to  him.  Ere  that  time  I  had  looked  upon  the 
man  as  an  honorable  gentleman. 

Very  soon  after  my  return  from  Los  Angeles  he 
came  to  the  city,  and  remained  several  weeks.  He 
did  not  call  upon  me,  but  contented  himself  with 
various  and  sundry  notes,  in  which  he  requested  me 
to  send  Jack  to  the  office  of  the  Consolidated  Tobacco 
Company.  I  urged  him,  by  letter,  to  come  and  see 
me.  But  no :  he  was  ashamed  —  I  suppose  —  to  face 
me  about  the  matter.  At  last  he  sent  a  man  to  get 
Jack ;  and  I  said  to  the  messenger,  "  If  Dr.  Howard 
had  been  the  gentleman  I  once  took  him  to  be,  he 
would  have  been  polite  enough  to  have  seen  me  in 
person  about  the  dog.  If  he  had  shown  the  widow 
of  his  4  dead  friend '  the  least  consideration  in  this 
proceeding,  he  could  have  had  him.  Howard  claims 
that  Mr.  Stow  gave  Jack  to  him  when  he  was  dying. 
That  I  do  not  believe,  because,  if  my  husband  was 


2(52  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

in  his  right  mind  —  and  all  the  physicians  say  that 
he  was  —  he  would  not  have  taken  the  liberty  of 
making  a  gift  of  my  property  without  the  qualifying 
clause,  4  with  my  wife's  consent.'  He  was  too  hon- 
orable for  that. 

"  When  Jack  lived  with  me  or  my  sister  he  was 
as  carefully  groomed  as  a  thoroughbred  every  day. 
When  I  brought  him  to  my  sister's  house  from  Los 
Angeles,  she  exclaimed,  4  What  cur  have  you  got 
there  ? '  He  did  not  look  as  though  he  had  been 
washed  or  brushed  once  since  he  left  San  Francisco. 
His  coat  was  filled  with  dirt  and  fleas.  People  said 
to  me  on  the  steamer,  *  What  is  the  matter  with  that 
dog?  he  is  biting  his  back  all  the  time.'  I  should 
never  have  allowed  him  to  be  taken  from  here 
if  I  had  not  thought  he  would  have  had  different 
care  from  what  he  has  received.  He  has  been  kept 
out  on  Freeman's  ranch,  and  housed  in  a  stable  or 
kennel,  I  should  think,  instead  of  being  taken  care 
of  by  Howard.  Mr.  Stow  took  him  out  of  a  stable 
to  save  him  from  the  horrors  of  a  life  of  fleas,  kicks, 
and  dirt.  He  knew  nothing  but  affectionate  care 
with  us ;  and  judging  from  his  appearance  when  I 
got  him  back  (for  he  acted  like  an  old  dog),  he  lias 
had  little  since.  A  man  with  three  babies  to  tend 
has  not  much  time  to  bestow  upon  a  dog.  Better 
leave  him  with  those  who  are  not  thus  blessed,  and 
to  those  that  have  a  prior  claim  of  ownership." 

"Ain't  you  goin'  to  let  me  take  Jack  to  the 
doctor  ?  "  said  the  diminutive  specimen  of  a  woman 
subjugator. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  A  VET  DOG.  263 

"  Take  him  ?  No,"  I  replied.  "  Dr.  Howard  shall 
never  have  him  after  the  course  he  has  puisued, 
unless  the  equitable  law  gives  him  to  him.  Give  the 
doctor  my  compliments  with  this  message." 

Then  commenced  a  petty  persecution  —  worthy  of 
the  Pygmies  — in  which  the  small  malice  evoked 
showed  the  true  proportion  of  this  Esculapian  sub- 
jugator. He  got  out  a  writ  of  replevin,  and  deputy 
sheriffs  and  private  detectives  had  a  lively  time  of  it 
for  about  two  weeks.  They  waited  upon  my  land- 
lady at  all  hours — when  I  wasn't  in.  They  followed 
every  big  woman  that  left  the  house  but  me  —  and  I 
am  not  physically  small.  One  poor  woman  carrying 
a  bundle,  which  they  evidently  thought  was  Jack  in 
his  swaddling-clothes,  was  pursued  so  furiously  that 
she  fell  down  and  nearly  killed  herself  in  her  fright. 
At  last  they  came  when  I  was  in,  but  Jack  was  out. 
Still  I  wished  them  to  think  I  had  him  with  me.  I 
locked  my  door  inside,  and  stood  with  one  foot  in  my 
room  and  the  other  on  the  balcony,  as  uncertain  as 
man  —  who  is  represented  with  — 

"  One  foot  on  land,  and  one  on  sea, 
To  one  thing  constant  never. ' ' 

Still  it  is  not  a  perfect  simile  in  my  case,  for  I  was 
most  constant  in  my  determination  to  protect  Jack. 
I  did  not  intend  to  see  the  officers,  and  I  didn't. 
While  they  were  thundering  at  my  door,  I  stepped 
into  the  next  house  through  the  balcony  window. 
After  they  were  gone,  I  went  down  to  the  City  Hall, 


264  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

and,  calling  upon  the  sheriff,  said  to  him,  "  Ain't 
you  in  pretty  small  business  persecuting  a  '  poor,  lorn 
creetur'  about  a  pet  dog?"  He  replied,  "I  cannot 
help  it:  I  must  do  my  duty  as  an  officer.  I  admit 
that  it 'is  very  small  business,  Mrs.  Stow,  but  it's  law 
nevertheless."  "  Well,"  I  continued,  "  I  hold  no 
malice  against  you  for  doing  your  duty  ;  but  I  shall 
give  you  all  the  trouble  I  can,  and  in  the  end  you 
won't  have  the  dog.  You  have  woman's  wit  to  out- 
wit ;  and  that  you'll  not  be  able  to  do  with  all  your 
deputies."  And  it  was  no  idle  boast,  for  they  did 
not  get  Jack. 

When  Howard  failed  to  take  him  from  me  through 
legal  chicanery  in  one  form,  he  resorted  to  the 
shuttle-cookery  of  courts. 

Then  I  was  sued.  "  Sued  for  a  dog!"  some  will 
exclaim,  with  an  extra  turn  of  a  nose  that  was 
retrousse  enough  before.  Some  people  have  no 
fellowship  with  dogs  :  I  have.  I  have  found  them 
faithful  friends.  They  never  turned  on  me  with  a 
viper's  fang,  in  payment  for  kindnesses  rendered,  as 
some  human  creatures  have ;  thej7-  never  have  sought 
to  heat  my  enemies,  or  cool  my  friends,  as  some 
human  creatures  have  ;  they  never  have  been  sum- 
mer friends,  and  turned  a  cold  shoulder  during  the 
winter  of  adversity,  as  some  human  creatures  have. 
They  are  true  till  death  :  they  are  not  human.  Dr. 
Stone  of  this  city  once  gave  a  lecture,  the  subject  of 
which  was  "The  Intelligence  of  Animals."  .Air. 
Stow  wrote  him  a  note  the  next  day,  in  which  he 


THE  HISTORY  OF  A  PET  DOG.  265 

said,  "  Bravo  for  you,  my  boy !  The  more  I  know  of 
dogs,  the  less  I  think  of  men." 

The  case  was  tried  in  the  Justice  Court,  before 
Judge  Joachimsen,  a  handsome,  dark  man,  with  no 
very  strong  predilection  for  dogs. 

The  party  of  the  first  part  had  brought  suit  against 
the  party  of  the  second  part  to  recover  the  sum  of 
$250  in  gold  coin,  in  case  a  certain  black-and-tan 
dog  that  answers  to  the  name  of  Jack  is  not  pro- 
duced in  court  —  bodily.  When  I  saw  the  price  set 
upon  poor  Jack's  head,  I  argued  in  this  wise  :  "Can- 
not I  get  an  offset,  a  kind  of  rebuttal,  against  the 
8250  claimed  by  the  party  of  the  first  part,  by  bring- 
ing in  a  counter  claim  for  services  rendered  as  sick- 
nurse  by  the  party  of  the  second  part?"  I  have 
paid  $20  a  week  for  sick-nursing,  —  not  within  the 
last  two  years,  however,  for  when  I  was  sick  unto 
death  the  just  Probate  would  not  allow  me  one  extra 
sixpence  for  medical  attendance  and  nursing.  There 
is  no  encouragement  held  out  to  probating  widows 
to  be  interesting  invalids.  They  must  keep  them- 
selves in  robust  health,  or  suffer  the  penalty  of  their 
folly. 

The  court-room  on  this  particular  morning  pre- 
sented a  curious  appearance.  The  subjugating  plain- 
tiff, with  a  long  line  of  subjugating  witnesses,  headed 
by  his  beardless,  youthful, — but  doubtless  MOST 
LEARNED,  —  attorney,  sat  on  the  left  of  "  his  Honor  ;  " 
while  poor  little  me,  with  my  one  witness  —  sister 
Gertie  —  and  my  attorney,  sat  on  his  right. 


266  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

Then  began  the  squabble  in  dead  earnest.  Wit- 
nesses were  examined  all  the  way  from  Los  Angeles 
to  San  Francisco  —  that  is,  they  had  travelled  that 
distance,  braving  the  perils  of  sea  and  land,  to  aid  a 
man  in  robbing  a  woman.  Freeman,  of  Temple  and 
Worrell  collapsed  -  bank  fame,  tall  and  dauntless, 
declared  that  Jack  was  worth  $200  to  catch  rats  on 
his  ranch  ;  at  which  statement  the  judge  questioned, 
"  Cannot  any  cur  catch  rats?"  A  very  perceptible 
wave  of  disgust  flowed  over  the  broad  face  of 
Freeman,  and  he  said  no  more,  but  slunk  away 
through  the  open  door  —  somewhere.  Then  the 
heroic  plaintiff  took  the  stand,  and  testified  that  he 
was  a  physician  and  surgeon,  was  a  graduate  of  the 
Royal  College  of  Physicians,  London,  England,  and 
of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  Edinburgh,  Scot- 
land ;  that  he  was  out  of  practice  at  the  present 
moment,  but  was  liable  to  commence  again  at  any 
time :  no  tellin'.  He  further  deposed  and  said,  "  On 
or  near  the  1st  of  August,  1874,  I  was  called  in 
consultation  with  Drs.  Keney  and  Holland  of  this 
city,  by  the  request  of  the  late  J.  \V.  Stow,  whom, 
on  arriving  here,  I  found  in  a  dying  condition.  He 
said  to  me,  '  I  wish  to  make  you  a  present  of  Jack. 
Keep  him,  for  my  sake,  as  long  as  he  lives ;  and  on 
no  account  let  another  person  have  him,  particularly 
my  wife.' r  When  Howard  said  this,  it  was  so 
amusingly  absurd  that  I  burst  out  laughing.  I 
might  have  been  fined  for  this  breach  of  court 
etiquette,  but  I  wasn't.  The  firing  of  that  gun,  like 


THE  HISTORY  OF  A  PET  DOG.  267 

Charles  Lamb's  chicken-wing,  "  did  the  job  for  him ;  " 
he  hadn't  another  word  to  say.  The  other  evidence 
taken  is  too  trivial  to  mention  —  "in  a  standard 
work."  When  all  the  chaff  had  been  winnowed  by 
the  legal  zephyrs,  a  letter  which  I  had  written  the 
doctor  was  read  by  the  aforementioned  youthful 
antagonist,  in  a  very  insinuating  voice.  Then  he 
opened  a  volume  of  my  first  edition  of  "  Probate 
Confiscation,"  and  with  great  consideration  for  my 
feelings  said,  "  Mrs.  Stow,  I  believe  you  are  the 
author  of  this  work."  I  modestly  confessed  that  "  I 
did  the  deed : "  after  which  he  read  various  and  sun- 
dry passages  therefrom,  evidently  charmed  with  the 
music  of  his  own  voice ;  then  he  argued  the  case  at 
length,  how  that  "  we  were  in  peaceful  possession  of 
the  dog,  and  that  defendant  had  fraudulently  pos- 
sessed herself  of  the  dog ;  that  it  was  not  the  value 
of  the  dog  which  they  sought,  but  the  bona  fide  dog." 
As  he  warmed  and  glowed  in  his  youthful  ardor, 
and  brilliant  display  of  legal  fire-works,  every  hair 
on  the  judge's  bald  head  bristled  with  amazement : 
he  was  not  prepared  for  such  a  whirlwind  of 
eloquence. 

At  last  the  adolescent  aspirant  for  forensic  honors 
sat  down,  amidst  a  burst  of  perspiration,  from  sheei 
exhaustion. 

During  the  breathless  silence  which  followed,  my 
attorney  turned  to  me,  and  said,  "  Mrs.  Stow,  I  am 
unable  to  respond  to  the  dazzling  effort  on  the  part 
of  our  opponent."  To  which  I  gaspingly  replied, 


268  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

"  You  have  my  profoundest  sympathy,  if  that  will 
assuage  your  embarrassment."  He  looked  the  grati- 
tude which  he  could  not  speak. 

The  judge  began  to  open  his  mouth  at  this  desper- 
ate moment,  and  when  the  feat  was  accomplished 
said,  "  The  defendant  must  pay  the  costs  of  court, 
and  produce  the  dog  Jack,  or  pay  five  dollars,  the 
value  I  set  upon  him." 

As  soon  as  the  judge  had  rendered  his  decision, 
the  long  line  of  witnesses,  headed  by  the  plaintiff 
and  the  youthful  attorney,  tore  out  of  that  court-room 
in  their  wrath,  down  the  stairs,  and  into  the  street, 
where  they  were  lost  to  sight,  if  not  to  memory  dear, 
in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye.  They  melted  away  like 
a  beautiful  dream,  or  like  dissolving  views.  But 
why  were  they  wrathy?  they  had  won  their  case, 
judgment  was  in  their  favor ;  why  or  wherefore,  I 
know  not.  That  is  one  of  the  things  which  will 
ever  remain  "past  findin'  out."  My  attorney  said 
it  was  because  I  had  spoken  of  Jack  in  my  letter  as 
being  Howard's  dog,  and  that  my  letter  had  killed 
my  case.  I  shall  never  be  quite  clear  on  the  subject : 
that  is,  because  I'm  not  versed  in  the  ways  that  are 
dark  and  the  tricks  that  are  vain,  no  doubt.  But 
there  is  one  thing  which  I  am  perfectly  clear  about ; 
and  that  is,  that  if  they  did  win  they  have  not  got 
possession  yet,  and  the  case  was  decided  months  ago. 

Jack  is  safe  among  admiring  friends,  enjoying  a 
ripe  doghood  —  if  I  may  use  the  expression ;  and 
why  not  ?  He  is  far  more  worthy  of  the  compound 


THE  HISTORY  OF  A  PET  DOG.  269 

than  many  a  cur  that  goes  on  two  legs  instead  of 
four;  he  is  brave,  honest,  and  true,  and' would  talk 
if  he  could ;  he  tells  me  every  time  I  go  to  see  him 
how  much  he  loves  me,  and  how  much  he  would  like 
to  go  home  with  me,  in  his  own  eloquent  dog-lan- 
guage ;  he  is  a  tried  friend  that  I  am  proud  of.  Mr. 
Stow  used  to  say  that  he  understood  the  English 
language  perfectly.  To  those  who  are  fond  of  dumb 
animals,  and  study  their  ways,  many  things  concern- 
ing them  are  perfectly  explainable  that  may  appear 
very  absurd  to  those  that  have  no  love  for  the  lower 
order  of  beings. 

Returning  to  my  room  late  one  afternoon,  I  found 
Jack  upon  the  rug  outside  my  door,  and  discovered 
at  the  same  time  that  my  dead  latch  was  inside.  I 
wrote  on  a  card  that  I  was  out  without  my  key,  and 
attached  the  card  to  Jack's  collar,  and  then  explained 
the  situation  to  him,  and  told  him  to  go  to  his  mas- 
ter's office  with  the  message.  My  husband  was 
speaking  with  a  friend  in  front  of  the  office  when 
Jack  made  his  appearance.  Mr.  Stow  remarked, 
when  he  saw  him,  "  There  comes  Jack  with  a  mes- 
sage from  his  mistress."  He  soon  came  back  to  me 
with  Mr.  Stow's  key  in  place  of  the  card.  Do  you 
think  Jack  Stow  understands  English  ? 

Howard  has  not  accepted  the  five  dollars  which  I 
placed  on  deposit  at  the  clerk's  office  for  him:  he 
says  it  is  only  a  question  of  tune,  that  he  will  have 
him  in  the  end. 

Now  I  call  upon  all  justice,  all  humanity,  and  ask, 


270  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

"  Who  has  the  best  right  to  Jack,  Dr.  F.  P.  Howard, 
or  Mrs.  J.  W.  Stow  ?  "  She  has  taken  care  of  him  for 
three  years,  and  her  sister  one,  making  four  years  of 
care ;  she  has  saved  his  life  by  careful  nursing ;  she 
has  never  for  a  moment  relinquished  her  right  to 
claim  him  at  any  moment ;  she  has  possession  of  him 
in  spite  of  courts,  sheriffs,  deputy-sheriffs,  and  sneaks ; 
and  possession  is  nine  points  of  law. 

Perhaps  they  will  get  him :  I  don't  say  but  that 
they  will.  The  law  gives  them  five  years  to  wage 
their  guerilla  warfare  in ;  Jack  will  be  verging  to- 
wards the  sere  and  yellow  leaf  by  that  time,  for  he 
is  ten  years  old  now. 

The  only  live  stock  that  Mr.  Stow  and  I  possessed 
was  Jack ;  and  the  only  real  estate  which  we  owned 
together  is  the  cemetery  lot.  That  Mr.  Pringle  has 
asked  me  to  set  a  price  upon,  —  a  small  price  at  that 
—  "  For,"  said  he,  "  you  would  not  expect  to  get  a 
fancy  price  for  it,  for  there  are  three  bodies  there 
already.  It  is  natural  that  the  man  who  has  a 
mother  and  a  child  buried  there  should  want  to  own 
the  lot."  But  of  course  it  is  unnatural  that  a  wife 
should  want  to  own  the  last  resting-place  of  a  hus- 
band. Then,  again,  "  Where  am  I  to  be  hidden 
when  I  die?  in  the  Potter's  Field?  What  shill  I 
do  with  the  money  paid  for  my  husband's  bones, 
and  the  few  feet  of  earth  that  surrounds  them? 
Shall  I  buy  a  love  of  a  bonnet  with  it,  or  bank  it 
with  the  hope  that  I  may  live  long  enough  so  that 
the  principal  and  interest  may,  in  the  dim  future, 


THE  HISTORY  OF  A  PET  DOG.  271 

amount  to  enough  to  pay  for  cremation  ?  "  This, 
like  many  another  solution  in  the  problem  of  wrest- 
ing every  thing  from  a  widow  by  male  subjugators, 
is  a  vexed  question.  I  have  not  as  yet  set  a  price 
on  the  coveted  lot ;  that  is  the  only  thing  the  just 
law  has  not  taken  from  me ;  and  I  have  not  a  doubt, 
if  these  shameless  executors  were  to  bring  this  into 
court,  but  that  the  upright  Myrick  would  decide 
against  the  non-voter,  and  for  the  voters.  He  has  a 
hawk's  eye  for  votes  and  the  extinguishment  of 
widows ;  yet  he  is  an  "  upright  judge,  "  so  say  the 
people  who  have  not  felt  the  weight  of  his  ermine 
upon  their  shoulders.  True,  I  have  Jack  yet,  and 
would  have  kept  him  if  the  law  had  imprisoned  me 
because  I  did  not  produce  him.  I  would  have  eaten 
bread  and  water  behind  bars  to  have  defied  it,  and 
protected  him  ;  and  yet  wherever  right  is  maintained 
I  am  a  law-abiding  —  what  ?  not  a  citizen  —  A  NON- 
ENTITY ! 

I  beg  to  ask  the  legal  savants  and  all  the  other 
absolute  rulers,  if  it  isn't  a  little  rough,  to  say  the 
least,  that  one  full-grown  body  —  I  cannot  call  my- 
self an  individual  under  the  law,  for  individual  rights 
are  protected,  and  mine  are  not  —  cannot  reasonably 
hope  to  maintain  peaceful  profession  of  a  pet  hedge- 
hog, weasel,  or  tarantula,  that  one  has  tamed  and 
cared  for  for  years,  and  learned  to  love  ?  for  it  is  a 
law  of  every  true  nature  to  love  that  which  one 
daily  cares  for.  If  one  can  be  protected  in  the  own- 
ership of  a  hedgehog,  he  or  she  ought  to  be  pro- 


272  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

tected  in  the  ownership  of  a  dog.  A  dog  is  more 
affectionate  than  a  hedgehog ;  that  is,  we  are  in 
greater  sympathy  with  its  demonstrations.  When  I 
was  a  little  girl,  and  lived  in  the  blessed  country,  and 
not  the  wicked  city,  I  had  a  pet  toad  that  I  named 
Billy.  Now,  Billy  knew  his  little  mistress's  voice, 
and  would  come  hopping  out  of  his  dark  corner  in  the 
garden-wall  when  she  called,  "  Billy,  Billy,"  for  he 
was  sure  of  getting  a  fly  or  two  ;  and  after  he  had 
swallowed  the  flies  with  a  duck  of  the  head  and  a 
great  relish,  he  would  suffer  her  to  pat  him  on  his 
back.  Now,  no  one  ever  thought  of  robbing  this 
little  girl  of  her  pet  Billy.  Why?  Because  she 
wasn't  a  widow  in  a  court  of  justice. 

Is  it  no't  a  reproach  and  a  shame  that  the  law 
permits  a  husband  when  he  is  dying  to  give  away  a 
household  pet  ?  No  one  but  a  base  wretch  would  do 
such  a  despicable  deed  in  his  sane  moments ;  and  no 
one  can  accuse  my  late  husband  of  so  vile  a  deed 
with  impunity  :  he  never  did  it. 

When  I  was  in  Rome  I  visited  the  studio  of  Har- 
riet Hosmer,  only  to  find  the  genius  of  the  place 
absent.  It  was  a  very  warm  day  ;  and  wearied  and 
disappointed  I  sat  down  to  rest  for  a  few  moments 
among  the  beautiful  productions  fashioned  and 
perfected  by  the  cunning  of  the  absent  hand.  Sud- 
denly, while  speaking  to  the  person  who  accompa- 
nied me,  I  heard  a  bumping  upon  the  naked  floor, 
and  looking  down  at  my  feet  I  saw  a  little  mud- 
turtle,  with  its  head,  so  suggestive  of  the  first  temp- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  A  PET  DOG.  273 

ter's,  stretched  far  out  of  its  shell,  and  its  gleaming 
eyes  fixed  on  my  face.  I  stooped  down,  and  picking 
it  up  placed  it  on  my  lap,  and,  patting  its  uneasy 
head  with  my  gloved  hand,  said,  "  Poor  little  lone- 
some thing !  did  you  mistake  the  sound  of  my  voice 
for  that  of  your  mistress's  ?  You  understand  the 
difference  between  the  English  language  and  that  of 
the  Italian  evidently." 

Do  you  suppose  that  any  Italian  court  of  justice 
ever  sought  to  rob  my  fair  compatriot  of  her  pet 
mud-turtle  ?  Single  women  can  live  in  peace  with 
their  pets,  without  a  fear  of  their  being  legally  stolen 
from  them  ;  but  not  so  with  married  women  and 
widows.  Their  pets,  with  every  thing  else,  are  ship- 
wrecked upon  this  legal  Gibraltar  called  JUSTICE. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

GILROY  CONSOLIDATED  TOBACCO  COMPANY. 
Cut  bono  ? 

CHRISTMAS  of  1873  Mr.  Stow  made  me  a  present 
of  a  hundred  shares  of  tobacco  stock,  saying,  "This 
little  piece  of  paper  looks  like  a  small  gift,  and  yet 
in  the  near  future  it  will  be  worth  par,  —  ten  thousand 
dollars."  Three  weeks  from  that  date  I  started  for 
Europe.  But  before  I  left  home  I  placed  in  a  savings 
bank  in  San  Francisco,  where  I  had  money  on  depos- 
it, this  stock,  together  with  my  will  and  other  valu- 
able papers,  for  safe  keeping. 

At  my  husband's  death  great  was  the  consternation 
of  the  usurping  powers  because  they  could  not  lay 
their  itching  fingers  upon  my  stock,  as  they  had 
done  upon  every  thing  else  of  value  belonging  to  me 
and  mine.  But  the  double  convex  lens  of  executors 
and  creditors  —  real  or  imaginary  —  failed  to  discover 
its  whereabouts,  although  every  drawer  in  bureau 
and  desk  was  ransacked,  and  every  pigeon-hole  in 
the  bookcase  dug  out.  Books  were  shaken  from  their 
bindings,  and  plethoric  envelopes  rent  asunder ;  old 
stockings  were  unravelled,  and  old  shoes  burnt,  in  the 

274 


GILROY  CONSOLIDATED   TOBACCO   COMPANY.      275 

frenzy  of  despair ;  work-boxes  were  upset,  and  patch- 
baskets  capsized ;  pillows  and  pincushions,  mattresses 
and  door-mats,  were  disembowelled  to  find  it  -  but 
all  in  vain.  The  key  of  my  moth-proof  chest  was  then 
demanded,  but  my  sister  "  thought"  I  had  taken  it 
with  me.  At  last  they  got  scent  of  the  papers  at  the 
bank ;  and  hither  they  hied  in  a  body,  to  be  met  by 
the  bold  cashier,  who  told  them  that  I  had  a  box 
there,  —  "contents  unknown"  to  the  defendant,  but 
said  to  contain  "  valuable  papers  "  which  he  had  prom- 
ised to  retain  until  I  called  for  them  in  person,  or 
until  called  for  by  my  sister  with  proofs  that  I  was 
dead.  Now,  as  I  was  still  living  and  not  dead,  lie 
refused  to  break  the  trust. 

Baffled',  but  not  discouraged,  they  struck  out  on  a 
new  lead :  they  laid  a  mine  to  unearth  it  or  create 
new  paper  by  assessing  the  capital  stock  at  the 
rate  of  five  dollars  per  share.  The  attorney  who  man- 
aged my  affairs  before  my  return  from  abroad,  after 
Mr.  Stow's  death,  called  upon  the  president  of  a 
savings  bank,  and  requested  him  to  bid  in  my  stock 
at  the  delinquent  sale,  as  I  had  the  amount  of  the 
assessment  on  deposit  at  his  bank.  He  complied  with 
the  request ;  but  without  the  knowledge  of  the  attor- 
ney, and  at  the  instigation  of  a  creditor  and  one  of 
the  executors,  he  signed  a  paper,  prepared  by  them, 
which  virtually  robbed  me  of  my  stock,  and  for 
several  months  this  honorable  trio  withheld  it  from 
me.  It  was  assessed  again,  in  the  mean  time,  tor  ten 
dollars  a  share.  I  took  the  thousand  dnlla-rs  to  the 


276  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

president,  and  demanded  the  surrender  of  my  stock. 
But  he  declined  to  deliver  it  unless  I  produced  the 
all-important  paper,  and  that  my  husband's  loving 
friends  refused  to  surrender.  When  I  asked  the 
creditor  for  it,  he  referred  me  to  the  executor ;  and 
when  I  interviewed  the  executor,  he  disclaimed  all 
knowledge  of  any  transaction  of  the  kind,  and  referred 
me  to  the  executive  lawyer. 

Thus  I  beat  about  the  bush  for  months,  but  the 
snared  bird  could  not  fly.  At  last,  when  the  brilliant 
managers  of  this  consolidated  fiasco  discovered  that 
it  would  be  a  good  thing  to  levy  a  third  assessment, 
these  magnanimous  friends  of  my  dead  husband 
decided  that  it  would  be  a  stroke  of  financial  policy 
to  deliver  the  stock  to  the  rightful  owner.  They 
argued  from  the  standpoint  of  greed  in  this  wise : 
"  We  will  permit  this  woman  to  have  her  stock,  for 
by  so  doing  we  shall  be  enabled  to  get  a  part,  and 
perhaps  the  whole,  of  her  personal  property,  in 
assessments ;  and  in  that  way  we  will  beggar  our 
dear  friend's  widow,  and  in  the  end  we  shall  have 
the  stock  besides." 

They  proved  themselves  wise  logicians.  They 
have  fleeced  me  out  of  five  thousand  dollars  in 
'assessments,  and  carrying  the  value  of  these  assess- 
ments at  a  usurer's  ruinous  per  cent  and  commissions ; 
and  they  have  got  my  stock.  It  was  sold  on  the  6th 
of  October,  1876,  with  the  stock  of  other  victims,  to 
the  amount  of  three  thousand  shares,  —  so  the  auc- 
tioneer, Gen.  Cobb,  informed  me  at  the  sale.  If  my 


GILROY  CONSOLIDATED   TOBACCO   COMPANY.      277 

private  property  had  not  been  tied  up  in  Probate,  I 
should  not  have  paid  the  last  assessment,  that  I  did 
pay,  of  a  thousand  dollars ;  but  I  was  compelled  to  do 
so,  having  no  other  property  to  give  as  security  to 
my  note  of  twelve  hundred  dollars,  which  was  held 
by  a  usurer  with  the  stock  as  collateral  security.  The 
holder  of  the  note  would  have  again  paid  the  thousand 
dollars  assessment,  only  that  I  had  freed  my  private 
estate  from  Probate,  and  therefore  could  mortgage 
it  for  enough  —  $2,000  —  to  pay  the  amount  that  I 
then  owed  him,  and  take  up  my  note. 

I  look  upon  the  whole  transaction,  from  beginning 
to  end,  as  more  reprehensible,  yes,  a  thousand  times 
more,  than  the  operations  of  highwaymen.  A  pro- 
fessed thief  takes  only  your  purse  and  jewels ;  but 
legalized  thieving  takes  the  food  out  of  your  mouth, 
the  clothes  off  your  back,  the  bed  from  under  your 
body,  the  roof  from  over  your  head,  —  every  tiling  ! 
Rich  men  are  all  powerful.  They  can  do  any  thing, 
hold  out  all  sorts  of  inducements  to  get  people's 
money,  when  they  know  from  the  beginning,  and 
that  is  what  it  is  done  for,  that  in  the  end  this  same 
money  falls  indirectly  into  their  pockets.  What  do 
they  care  if  the  poor  plucked  victim  does  blow  his 
brains  out  in  -despair  at  his  ruin  ?  They  are  blood- 
less ! 

What  is  the  matter  with  the  Gilroy  Consolidated 
Tobacco  Company  ?  Why  have  they  found  it  neces- 
sary to  water  the  stock  to  the  tune  of  twentj^-five 
hundred  shares,  and  levy  assessments  at  the  rate  of 


278  PROBATE  'CONFISCATION. 

forty-five  dollars  a  share  in  a  fraction  over  two  years  ? 
Criminal  mismanagement  is  the  answer  to  this  ques- 
tion, if  all  have  paid  their  assessments,  which  I 
very  much  doubt.  One  of  the  officers  told  me,  that, 
if  a  fourth  assessment  was  levied,  he  was  a  ruined 
man,  that  the  accumulation  of  thirty  years  was  irre- 
coverably lost.  And  yet  he  voted  for  the  fourtli  and 
fifth  assessments.  This  is  a  game  of  chance  which  I 
do  not  understand. 

Forty-five  dollars  per  share  on  10,000  shares  is 
some  money  to  squander  in  the  short  space  of  two 
years,  without  a  more  substantial  showing  than  this 
company  is  able  to  furnish  forth.  When  the  last 
delinquent  three  thousand  shares  were  sold  for  assess- 
ments, there  was  not  one  bid. 

In  a  few  days  after  the  sale  there  was  a  fire  at  the 
seat  of  operation,  Gilroy.  The  building  and  tobacco 
destroyed  by  the  conflagration  was  insured  for  $63,- 
000.  I  hope  the  company  may  get  it.  It  takes  money 
to  carry  on  such  a  spread-eagle  enterprise.  Big  sala- 
ries, bombastic  displays  at  fairs  and  expositions,  flam- 
ingo advertisements,  and  princely  gifts,  draw  heavily 
upon  the  treasury.  What  does  a  close  corporation  of 
five  care,  if  it  can  get  money  out  of  c  ^nfiding  victims 
to  splurge  with,  if  it  does  ruin  a  few  men  and  women  ? 
What  do  the  great  in  purse  —  and  nothing  else  - 
care  about  the  canaille  who  are  low  and  mean  in  noth- 
ing but  poverty  ?  Honesty  counts  for  nought  with  a 
class  of  men  who  must  have  money  at  all  hazard  and 
at  a  ay  price.  These  are  the  successful  financiers  who 


GILROY  CONSOLIDATED   TOBACCO   COMPANY.      279 

are  at  the  head  of  corporate  bodies,  whose  heads  are 
stall-fed  until  their  eyes  stand  oat  with  fatness,  but 
whose  bodies  are  emaciated  to  skeletons. 

Let  me  warn  women,  now  and  here,  to  beware  of 
corporations ;  for  the  history  of  corporate  waste 
reveals  something  akin  to  the  bottomless  gulf.  The 
enormous  sums  of  money  that  are  squandered  by  the 
plethoric  heads  of  these  lean  bodies  is  something 
fabulous.  Avoid  both  secular  and  religious  stock 
companies,  —  that  is,  organizations  whose  members 
are  of  the  pious  sort.  Here  is  what  Rev.  Dr.  Talmage 
says  of  this  kind  of  serious  speculation :  "  Some  elder 
or  deacon  of  our  churches  may  get  up  an  oil  company, 
or  some  sort  of  religious  enterprise  sanctioned  by  the 
church,  and  induce  the  sisters  to  put  their  money 
into  a  hole  in  Venango  County  ;  and  if,  by  the  most 
skilful  derricks,  the  sunken  money  cannot  be  pumped 
up  again,  prove  to  them  that  it  was  eternally  decreed 
that  that  was  the  way  they  were  to  lose  it,  and  that 
it  went  in  the  most  orthodox  and  heavenly  style. 

"  Oh  the  damnable  schemes  that  professed  Chris- 
tians will  engage  in  —  until  God  puts  his  finger  into 
the  collar  of  the  hypocrite's  robe,  and  rips  it  clear 
down  to  the  bottom  !  " 

I  do  not  think  he  often  puts  his  finger  into  the 
collar  of  secular  thieves,  for  they  seem  to  thrive  on 
their  ill-gotten  gains  with  whole  robes. 

Individual  enterprise  is  far  more  certain  of  profit- 
able results  than  to  risk  money  in  the  pool  of  specu- 
lation or  in  corporate-pools  and  company-pools  of  any 
name  or  nature. 


280  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

I  took  up  my  stock  in  time  to  attend  the  annual 
meeting  for  the  election  of  officers.  I  had  never 
been  present  at  a  meeting ;  and,  as  this  was  my  last 
opportunity,  I  meant  to  embrace  it,  although  I  was 
advised  by  a  friend  not  to  go,  as  it  would  do  no  good, 
that  there  would  probably  be  no  other  woman  there, 
and  that  I  would  feel  like  a  cat  in  a  strange  garret. 

I  indignantly  protested  against  ever  having  such  a 
feline  feeling,  and,  buckling  on  my  armor  of  determi- 
nation, went.  The  "  important  meeting,"  as  it  was 
called,  was  to  open  at  three,  P.M.,  rather  a  late  hour 
to  transact  very  much  weighty  business.  I  was  the 
first  one  there ;  and  many  a  wondering  stare  came 
from  the  greater  and  lesser  tobacco-lights,  as  they 
filed  in  one  after  another,  and  took  their  seats,  and 
waited  in  unspeakable  dignity  the  advent  of  the 
president.  He  entered  sharp  on  the  stroke  of  three, 
and,  taking  the  chair,  proclaimed  the  meeting  open, 
by  calling  for  the  report  of  the  investigating  com- 
mittee of  five,  which  had  been  previously  appointed 
to  learn  why  the  assessments  had  trodden  upon  each 
other's  heels  so  fast. 

There  was  one  out  of  the  five,  it  seems,  that  had 
not  been  fitly  chosen  ;  for  he  got  up,  —  as  soon  as  the 
four  others  had  declared  every  thing  "  lovely  "  and 
sat  down,  —  and  after  properly  adjusting  his  necktie, 
and  pulling  clown  his  white  vest,  said,  "  Mr.  Presi- 
dent, I  don't  wish  to  censure  or  condemn,  but  I  don't 
approve  of  some  things  I  saw  while  at  Gilroy.  I 
don't  think  it  financial  policy  to  pay  a  man  two  him- 


GILROY  CONSOLIDATED   TOBACCO  COMPANY.      281 

dred  dollars  a  month,  as  overseer,  that  is  not  out  of 
his  bed  before  noon."  Thereupon  the  superintend- 
ent, the  physically  smallest  man  of  the  five  which 
compose  the  very  close  board  of  directors,  sprang 
to  his  feet,  and  said  the  speaker  was  mistaken,  - —  or 
something  to  that  effect,  —  and  cut  such  a  hot  figure 
that  I  expected  every  moment  to  see  him  run  his 
little  fist  down  the  investigator's  throat,  as  he  plunged 
head  foremost  into  the  daring  dissenter's  bosom,  — 
d  la  Miles  Standish  and  the  savage. 

At  this  moment  there  was  a  cry  of  "  Order,  order ! " 
and  that  speeches — and,  it  would  appear,  conflicting 
reports  —  were  not  in  order  ;  and  the  president  said 
his  time  was  "up  "  at  four  o'clock.  A  brief  period 
for  transacting  "  important  business,"  —  one  hour. 
After  Mr.  Investigator  was  choked  off,  Mr.  Bell, 
one  of  the  close  five,  rose  and  rung  some  charming 
chimes  on  the  "  princely  generosity  of  the  president, 
the  masterly  ability  of  the  superintendent,  and 
applauded  the  4  dewins '  of  the  polite  man  of  many 
tongues,  who  had  done  the  honors  in  the  4  pagoda ' 
at  the  Centennial,"  —  which  pagoda  should  have 
been  topped  off  with  an  ass's  head,  as  symbolical  of 
the  wisdom  of  the  managers  of  the  Gilroy  Consoli- 
dated Tobacco  Company. 

At  this  point  the  unruly  investigator  kicked  over 
the  traces  again,  by  jumping  up  and  saying,  "  As 
{speeches  appear  to  be  in  order  just  now,  I  have  some- 
thing further  to  say."  "  Sit  down  !  "  shouted  the 
pugilistic  little  superintendent.  "  I  have  the  floor, 


282  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

and  I  will  be  heard,"  replied  the  determined  investi- 
gator. Then  there  was  an  uprising  and  an  uproar. 
Nearly  every  one  sprang  to  his  feet,  madly  gesticu- 
lating, and  let  fly  a  wordy  missile.  Not  knowing  how 
it  would  all  end,  and  fearing  some  stray  fist  might 
come  my  way,  I  eagerly  measured  the  distance  —  with 
my  eye  —  from  the  open  window  where  I  sat  to  the  roof 
below,  and  wondered  which  would  come  off  first  best 
in  case  I  was  forced  to  jump  out,  the  glass  skylight 
or  my  legs.  However,  I  was  spared  the  trial  by  the 
polite  Centennial  man.  He  came  mildly  to  the  rescue, 
and  poured  soothing  sirup  into  the  blazing  bowl  of 
contention,  in  the  form  of  "gentle  words  and  loving 
smiles,"  said  it  was  only  a  slight  mistake,  that  the 
investigator  was  right  and  the  superintendent  was 
right,  and  that  every  thing  was  "  lovely,"  &c. 

Seeing  by  the  disgusted  looks  of  the  investigator 
that  he  needed  a  sugar-plum  to  make  him  feel  right, 
he  —  the  speaker  —  proposed  his  name  to  fill  a  chair 
among  the  close  five  which  was  not  vacant,  which 
seat  the  investigator  promptly  declined,  not  choosing 
to  sit  double,  and  remembering  the  old  adage,  that 
"if  two  ride  one  donkey,  one  must  needs  ride  behind." 

Order  having  come  out  of  chaos,  a  long-winded 
annual  report  was  read  through  the  nose  of  the 
secretary,  eulogizing  the  deeds  of  the  immaculate 
"five;"  " how  they  had  bravely  fought  difficulties 
which  had  enveloped  them  like  a  tempest;  how  the 
other  tobacco  companies  had  all  set  their  teeth  upon 
them,  and  would  not  coalesce,  calling  the  new 


GILROY  CONSOLIDATED   TOBACCO   COMPANY.      283 

process  of  curing  the  weed  a  c  mongrel  process,' 
and  thereby  injuring  its  sale ;  how  their  finest 
Havana  cigars  had  been  returned  upon  their  hands 
as  unmarketable  "  (because  the  Gilroy  ass  was  recog- 
nized under  the  skin  of  the  Havana  lion)  ;  "  how 
the  proceeds  of  what  was  sold  fell  into  another's 
pocket  than  theirs;  how  this  year's  crop  would 
overtop  all  other  crops ;  how  the  cantankerous 
tobacco-worm  had  decreased  longitudinally,  and 
increased  proportionately  diametrically,  but  that  its 
capacity  for  green  Gilroy  tobacco,  weight,  habits, 
and  complexion,  were  unchanged ;  how  the  heathen 
setters  had  abandoned  the  ^mbeautiful  style  of  shav- 
ing their  heads,  and  adopted  the  '  Melican  '  mode 
of  dispensing  with  tails ;  how  the  president,  like  a 
prodigal,  had  lavished  untold  gold  to  keep  the  com- 
pany's financial  wheels  greased,  and  that  Parrott  was 
but  another  name  for  Napoleon ;  how  the  superin- 
tendent was  a  man  of  rare  parts,  a  genuine  genius, 
an  improver  upon  nature  ;  how  their  polite  Centen- 
nial brother  had  clothed  himself  in  a  flowing  pair 
of  cardinal-red  Turkish  pants,  and  sat  under  a 
turban  adorned  with  a  crimson  and  gold  tassel,  in 
the  doorway  of  the  Gilroy  Consolidated  Pagoda, 
smoking  a  chibouque  filled  with  Gilroy  tobacco,  the 
incense  of  which  rose,  and  hung  like  a  pillar  of 
cloud  over  the  City  of  Brotherly  Love,  thereby  caus- 
ing great  destruction  among  the  birds  of  the  air ; 
how  each  masculine  pilgrim  who  visited  the  Grand 
Exposition  was  presented  with  a  box  of  Gilroj 


284  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

Havana-flavored  cigars,  without  money  and  without 
price  —  as  samples  ;  how  every  snuffy  old  pilgrinu 
heart  was  made  glad  with  a  half-pound  box,  filled  to 
bursting  with  pulverized  Gilroy  tobacco  scented 
with  bergamot ;  how  foreign  ambassadors  of  all 
nations,  kingdoms,  tongues,  and  complexions,  had 
condescended  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  '  Gilroy 
Extra  Fine  Cut ; '  how  his  Excellency,  the  President 
of  the  United  States  of  America,  had  turned  his 
short  nose  into  a  chimney-pot  for  the  express  accom- 
modation of  'finest  Havana-flavored'  Gilroy  cigar 
smoke ;  how  there  had  been  some  mistakes  made  in. 
the  management,  but  that  mistakes  were  human ; 
how,  if  the  weed  was  bitter  and  unpalatable  in 
undoctored  state,  it  was  the  fault  of  the  soil  and  not 
of  the  company ;  how  the  company  might  con- 
gratulate itself  on  its  fine  tobacco-sheds  and  manu- 
factories builded  out  of  moneys  wrung  out  of 
malcontents  who  stupidly  preferred  dividends  to 
assessments;  how  the  fame  of  Gilroy  tobacco  had 
gone  up  and  down  the  earth,  and  then  come  back 
again  —  on  its  own  strength  ;  how  it  would  be  wise 
to  chop  up  the  returned  cigars  into  vermin  extermi- 
nator, that  no  perambulating  cockroach,  marauding 
moth,  persistent  pismire,  pestiferous  flea,  or  scented 
bedbug,  would  roam  within  cannon-shot  of  Gilroy 
tobacco  —  it  being  too  strong  for  them  ;  how  the 
company  were  growing  potatoes  instead  of  tobacco, 
at  the  present  moment,  on  the  Gilroy  Tobacco 
Runcho,  because  the  demand  for  Gilroy  '  spuds '  wan 


GILROY  CONSOLIDATED   TOBACCO   COMPANY.      285 

greater  than  that  for  Gilroy  tobacco ;  how  the 
princely  liberality  of  the  Gilroy  Consolidated  Tobac- 
co Company  was  wide-spread,"  &c.,  &c.  But  never 
a  word  was  spoken  of  how  the  money  that  furnished 
forth  this  lavish  expenditure  of  "  liberality "  and 
wasteful  splurge  was  obtained  ;  how  it  had  been 
wrung  out  of  confiding  victims  with  such  as  the 
following  promises :  "  This  is  the  very  last  assess- 
ment that  will  be  levied.  The  stock  is  really  worth 
par,"  and  kindred  truthful  statements. 

During  Mr.  Stow's  life  he  claimed  that  the  chief 
excellence  of  the  Gilroy  tobacco  consisted  in  the 
leaf  as  a  cigar  wrap ;  but  since  his  death  it  has  cost 
the  company  several  hundred  thousand  dollars,  so  I 
was  told  by  Maurice  Dore,  one  of  the  largest  share- 
holders, to  purchase  Havana  wrappers. 

Did  the  small  shareholders  —  who  paid  their  assess- 
ments in  read3T  gold  —  vote  for  that  grandiflora  tobac- 
co blossom  on  a  dry  stalk  at  Philadelphia,  which,  it  is 
alleged,  was  the  most  expensive  thing  of  its  kind  on 
the  grounds  ?  No  !  I,  for  one,  knew  nothing  about 
it  until  I  read  of  its  magnificence  in  the  papers.  I 
wonder  if  the  specimens  tested,  on  which  it  is  trum- 
peted a  premium  was  granted,  were  not  by  accident 
entirely  manufactured  out  of  those  Havana  wraps, 
instead  of  being  merely  bound  up  in  them  ?  It 
might  have  happened  by  a  sly  trick  of  those 
"heathen  Chinee."  If  not,  those  judges  must  have 
queer  taste.  Perhaps  they  had  recently  tested  the 
merits  of  California  wine,  and  the  two  "  native " 


286  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

productions  had  got  a  little  tangle-footed  in  their 
brains. 

The  small  shareholders  paid  for  every  leaf  and 
fibre  of  those  premium  cigars  as  the  Sultan  pays  for 
the  Turkish  tapestry  beside  his  throne.  The  money 
of  men  and  women,  widows  and  orphans,  who  could 
ill  afford  it,  has  been  sunk  in  this  bottomless  pit  of 
invisible  absorption;  and  it  will  never  have  a  resur- 
rection for  their  benefit.  The  hidden  hands  that 
carry  off  the  plunder  are  not  perceptible  to  the  mor- 
tal ken  of  small  shareholders,  so  ingeniously  have 
they  been  contrived.  But  the  frost-bitten  fingers  of 
the  "  frozen  outs  "  will  not  be  able  to  touch  a  farth- 
ing. It  takes  a  great  many  little  fish  to  fill  the  maw 
of  a  big  one.  We,  the  little  netted  fish,  are  hurt 
very  much  worse  than  we  should  have  been  if  some 
one  had  slit  up  our  pockets  and  taken  our  purses. 
The  difference  is  only  in  the  way  of  doing  it. 

But  to  return  to  the  winding-up  of  the  "  impor- 
tant meeting."  When  the  curious  annual  report 
was  ended  (the  best  of  things  must  end  somewhere), 
the  right  party  made  a  motion  that  the  old  Board 
keep  its  seat  —  and  it  was  not  unseated.  Just  as  I 
was  about  to  rise,  for  I  had  gone  there  for  the  express 
purpose  of  telling  those  men  what  I  thought  of  such 
management,  Mr.  President  adjourned  the  meeting 
sine  die,  after  which  he  crossed  over,  and  patted 
Mr.  Investigator  on  the  back,  and  Mr.  Investigator 
patted  Mr.  President  on  the  back,  and  locking  arms 
they  walked  down  Stairs  a  reconciled  pair.  But  not 


GILROY   CONSOLIDATED   TOBACCO   COMPANY.      287 

so  with  me:  I  was  full  of  wrathful  indignation,  prob- 
ably because  I  had  not  been  able  to  speak  ray  "little 
piece" — of  mind.  Speech  is  a  great  safety-valve. 
Besides,  no  one  offered  to  pat  my  back  because  I  was 
offended. 

I  was  telling  a  friend  what  I  thought  of  the  whole 
cut  and  dried  (beforehand)  proceedings,  and  the 
unseemly  haste  that  strangled  every  thing  antago- 
nistic to  the  wishes  of  the  all-powerful  "  five."  He 
laughed  at  my  simplicity,  and  said,  "  A  much  more 
important  annjual  meeting  that  was  held  a  short  time 
ago  not  *  ten  thousand  miles  awa}T,'  which  involves 
hundreds  of  millions  of  capital,  instead  of  hundreds 
of  thousands,  was  of  much  shorter  duration.  Some 
disagreeable  stockholders  were  bent  upon  being  pres- 
ent, and  arrived  at  the  appointed  place  for  the  meet- 
ing in  grand  good  time.  Soon  the  *•  powers  that  be ' 
entered,  and  said  to  these  inquisitive  bores, 4  Friends, 
you  are  too  early :  you  will  have  time  to  step  round 
the  corner,  and  get  a  damper.''  Feeling  rather  de- 
siccated by  the  warmth  of  their  zeal,  they  put  their 
heads  into  the  trap  by  embracing  the  opportunity,  — 
arid  stepped  round  the  corner.  But,  lo !  when  they 
returned,  the  meeting  had  just  adjourned.  During 
that  brief  space  of  time  the  knowing  old  heads  had 
voted  themselves  into  office  for  another  year.  What 
could  these  now  thoroughly  moist  shareholders  do  ? 
Nothing,  unless  it  was  to  console  each  other  by 
saving,  '  Well,  it  would  have  done  no  earthly  good  if 
we  had  been  here.  It  would  have  been  all  the  same  : 
heads  I  win,  tails  you  lose.'  ' 


288  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

Such  is  power  and  misplaced  confidence  ;  and  when 
there  is  an  ostensible  showing  of  fair  play,  what 
does  it  amount  to  ?  A  stockholder  is  thrown  into 
an  ecstasy  one  day  by  getting  a  dividend,  and  thrown 
out  of  it  the  next  by  getting  an  assessment  twice  the 
amount  of  the  dividend,  and  he  can  only  wonder  at 
the  capers  of  stocks. 

I  believe  there  is  a  new  process  for  curing  tobacco, 
known  as  the  "  Gulp  Process."  I  was  speaking  to 
one  of  the  oldest  tobacconists  in  San  Francisco  about 
this  process.  Said  he,  "  Mrs.  Stow,  if  you  wish  to 
enjoy  the  perfume  of  a  flower,  do  you  pluck  off  the 
petals,  and  put  them  in  a  heap  where  they  will  heat 
and  ferment?  Will  that  improve  the  aroma?  Would 
not  this  packing  destroy  all  the  delicate  fragrance  ? 
Now,  this  is  all  the  Gulp  Process  amounts  to ;  and  it 
leaves  the  tobacco  bitter  and  odorless,  and  the  per- 
fume has  to  be  supplied  by  foreign  substances.  Here 
are  two  samples  which  I  wish  you  to  smell  of.  One 
is  cured  the  old  way,  one  the  new."  I  did  as  he 
desired  me  to  do  ;  but,  as  tobacco  in  any  form  is 
most  offensive  to  me,  I  was  unable  to  judge  of  the 
merits  or  demerits  of  either  specimen.  Mr.  Tobac- 
conist continued,  "  The  company  will  have  to  aban- 
don that  process  before  they  will  realize  any  thing 
but  costs."  I  wonder  who  will  pay  the  bills,  now 
that  the  directors  have  got  possession  of  nearly  all 
the  stock. 

In  my  peregrinations  about  San  Francisco  with 
books  and  tickets,  I  have  asked  at  least  a  thousand 


GILROY  CONSOLIDATED   TOBACCO   COMPANY.      289 

smokers  if  they  liked  Gilroy  cigars,  particularly 
those  that  "  take  on  the  flavor  of  the  finest  Ha- 
vanas ;  "  and  the  answer  has  been  "  No !  "  with  but 
one  solitary  exception,  and  that  was  an  old  Irish 
laborer.  The  universal  complaint  was,  "  They  are 
bitter.  I  had  a  box  given  to  me  to  try,  but  I  could 
not  smoke  them  myself,  so  I  handed  them  over  to 
the  clerks  to  battle  with." 

At  the  last  delinquent  assessment  "  bid  in"  I  said 
to  one  of  the  directors,  "  I  have  lost  $5,000  in  this 
leaky  ship ;  and  I  feel  most  bitterly  about  it,  for  it 
has  gone  to  further  enrich  the  executors  of  my 
estate.  I  have  suffered  enough  in  that  direction 
without  this  additional  loss."  He  smilingly  made 
answer,  "J,  Mrs.  Stow,  have  lost  all  I  have.  I 
risked  all  my  worldly  wealth  in  this  same  ship,  and 
it  went  down  to-day  along  with  yours  ;  and  I  have  a 
family  to  support."  "  How  cheerful  you  are  under 
such  a  sweeping  disaster  !  "  I  replied.  "  Men  are  so 
much  more  philosophical  than  women  under  great 
afflictions.  How  I  envy  you  your  equanimity  and 
self-poise  !  "  I  shall  watch,  with  just  five  thousand 
dollars  worth  of  interest,  the  upshot  of  this  little 
game. 

The  same  day  I  asked  Mr.  Dore  what  the  stock 
was  valued  at.  "  Twenty  dollars  a  share,  at  a  very 
low  estimate,"  he  made  reply.  "  Well,"  I  continued, 
"  I  shall  ever  hold  this  company  responsible  for  the 
present  value  of  my  stock,  $ 2,000.  You  have  all 
my  husband's  stock  that  did  not  disappear  at  the 


290  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

time  of  his  death,  and  you  have  all  the  money  of 
paid-up  assessments  on  it,  and  mine,  which  the  com- 
pany bid  in  to-day.  You  took  the  price  of  assess- 
ments on  his  stock  out  of  my  estate  when  you  knew 
what  the  end  was  to  be  as  well  as  you  do  at  this 
moment.  If  the  estate  had  been  closed,  as  it  should 
have  been,  a  year  and  a  half  ago,  the  amount  of 
assessments  paid  on  Mr.  Stow's  stock  would  have 
remained  for  the  benefit  of  the  estate  instead  of  the 
Tobacco  Company.  Therefore  I  hold  you  individu- 
ally accountable  for  my  $2,000."  "  How  can  we 
reimburse  every  one  for  his  lost  stock?  "  he  rejoined. 
"  Every  one  has  not  been  such  a  loser  through  your 
manipulations  as  I  have.  Mine  is  an  exceptionally 
cruel  case.  You  got  control  of  all  I  have  in  my 
absence,  and  have  kept  control  of  it  in  spite  of  every 
effort  of  mine,  thus  tying  me  hand  and  foot  until  I 
am  legally  plundered  of  nearly  every  thing  I  possess ; 
and  you  are  one  of  the  choice  friends  who  my 
husband  said  would  treat  me  like  a  brother  in  ease 
of  his  death."  Heaven  defend  me  from  such  friends  I 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

IN  TRANSITU  UNDER  DIFFICULTIES. 
In  extremis. 

FASTIDIOUS  people  had  better  omit  this  chapter. 

On  the  eighth  day  of  January,  1877,  I  left  San 
Francisco  en  route  for  the  East.  Having  a  few  un- 
sold copies  of  the  first  edition  of  "  Probate  Confisca- 
tion "  left,  I  stopped  off  a  week  in  Sacramento,  and 
sold  them. 

Before  leaving  San  Francisco  I  went  to  the  own- 
ers and  managers  of  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad  and 
begged  them  to  give  me  a  pass  over  the  road,  urging, 
as  a  plea,  that  I  had  been  such  a  financial  sufferer  — 
for  the  last  going  on  three  years  —  through  the 
manipulations  of  man  courts  and  men  thieves ;  and 
further,  that  Mr.  Charles  Crocker  had  given  my 
husband  and  me  a  pass  over  the  road  for  a  whole 
year  when  it  was  first  opened,  which  pass  we  did  not 
find  time  to  use  but  very  little  ;  that  I  was  going  to 
return  to  public  life,  and  wished  to  conserve  every 
farthing  saved  from  the  wreck  of  my  fortune  to  aid 
in  the  establishment  of  horticultural  schools  for 
women  in  this  country ;  and  that  if  I  did  riot  get  a 

291 


292  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

pass  or  a  half-fare  ticket  I  should  be  compelled  to 
go  on  the  emigrant  train. 

Then  these  gentlemen  made  answer,  and  said, 
"  We  cannot  aid  you.  Should  we  give  you  a  pass, 
or  reduce  the  fare  in  any  way,  it  might  cost  us  $10,- 
000.  It  is  not  our  fault :  the  '  powers  that  be '  at 
Washington  have  done  the  deed.  They  have  cut 
off  all  dead-heads  on  the  road."  "But  how  will 
they  know  it  ?  "  I  pleaded.  "  They  do  not  employ 
spies,  do  they  ? "  "  No ;  but  we  are  discharging 
conductors  and  other  employees,  at  different  times. 
who  would  be  sure  to  report  any  transgression  of 
enforced  law  on  our  part." 

When  I  came  to  buy  my  ticket,  I  learned  that  I 
could  not  stop  off  a  week  or  a  day  on  an  emigrant 
ticket.  Therefore  I  had  to  pay  my  fare  to  Sacra- 
mento, and  then  pay  full  price  for  my  ticket  there ; 
thus  realizing  by  personal  experience  that  the  curse 
of  the  poor  is  their  poverty.  None  but  the  rich  can 
have  stop-over  accommodations ;  none  but  the  rich 
can  worship  God  in  elegance.  "Not  for  the  poor 
swingeth  wide  open  the  bronze  church-door."  I 
never  knew  what  it  was  to  want  for  a  dollar  in  my 
life  until  I  was  J.  W.  Stow's  widow  ;  and  none  who 
knew  him  will  ever  believe  that  he  died  a  poor  man. 

If  my  separate  property  had  not  been  tangled  up 
in  Probate,  I  should  never  have  known  the  value  of 
money  as  I  now  know  it.  People  will  never  believe 
that  I  suffered  for  the  common  necessaries  of  life, 
because  I  was  comfortably  clad.  When  we  so. 


IN  TRANSITU    UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  293 

well-dressed  person  we  never  stop  to  think  that  in 
spite  of  his  good  clothes  he  may  be  starving.  I  have 
not  spent  a  hundred  dollars  for  wearing-apparel  in 
nearly  three  years,  including  every  thing,  —  shoes, 
gloves,  and  loves  of  bonnets.  The  latter  has  cost  me 
two  dollars  for  a  straw  in  San  Francisco,  which  I 
trimmed  myself  with  odds  and  ends  of  silk,  ribbon, 
and  feather,  which  I  had  on  hand.  I  paid  forty- 
five  cents  for  a  frame  since  I  came  to  Boston,  which 
I  covered  with  '73  silk  and  velvet.  The  garniture 
consists  of  an  old  feather  and  a  new  ribbon — cost 
ninety  cents.  I  do  not  count  the  cost  of  making,  as 
woman's  time  is  of  "  no  value." 

I  should  have  gone  hungry  many  a  day  in  San 
Francisco,  or  lived  upon  charity,  if  it  had  not  been 
for  the  money  obtained  by  the  sale  of  my  book. 
For  the  four  hundred  copies  which  I  sold  in  that 
city  I  realized  nearly  a  thousand  dollars,  many 
having  given  five  dollars  a  copy  for  it,  although  the 
price  is  but  two.  Why  did  they  do  this  ?  Because 
I  was  such  a  sufferer  under  the  law. 

Some  said  to  me,  "  Why  don't  you  sell  your  un- 
productive real  estate,  and  live  comfortably  ?  What 
do  you  go  back  to  public  life  for  ?  Who  will  thank 
you  for  the  gift  of  money  or  labor  ?  The  income 
of  twenty-five  or  thirty  thousand  dollars,  the  value 
of  your  property,  will  support  you  in  elegance ;  "  to 
all  of  which  I  made  answer,  "  I  cannot  sit  down 
with  folded  hands,  when  I  have  health,  time,  means, 
and  ability  to  save  one  and  perhaps  many  of  my  less 


294  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

fortunate  sisters  to  lives  of  usefulness  and  honor,  that 
might  otherwise  go  down  in  ruin  and  death.  Some- 
where it  is  said,  '  He  who  is  the  means  of  saving 
one  human  soul  shall  be  counted  worthy  of  eternal 
life.' " 

Perhaps  the  scathing  lesson  which  I  have  been 
forced  to  learn,  so  much  against  my  will,  may  prove 
a  salutary  one  ;  for  I  know  how  to  sympathize  with 
the  poor  as  I  never  could  without  just  such  an  ex- 
perience. An  eminent  divine  says,  "  You  cannot  lie 
on  a  sofa  in  your  sumptuous  parlor,  and  mid  senti- 
mental stones  of  miseiy,  and  want,  and  suffering, 
taking  misery  as  a  pinch  of  salt  to  make  something 
else  taste  better,  —  and  understand  what  it  means." 

I  tried  to  get  something  to  do  to  earn  a  comfort- 
able living,  as  the  Christian  Probate  Court  refused 
me  a  support  after  the  first  year,  while  it  held  all  I 
had  in  its  iron  grip ;  but  I  could  not.  It  is  a  diffi- 
cult matter  for  a  stranded  woman  to  earn  a  tempo- 
rary livelihood  in  San  Francisco.  Why  ?  Because 
every  avocation,  with  a  few  exceptions,  open  to 
women  is  invaded  by  the  Chinese ;  and  they  reduce 
the  price  paid  for  labor  to  a  minimum  low  standard, 
or  to  almost  starvation  prices. 

When  I  left  Sacramento,  a  trunk  which  had  trav- 
elled with  me  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  miles, 
and  upon  which  I  had  never  once  paid  an  extra 
pound  of  baggage  either  in  this  country  or  in 
Europe,  was  weighed.  I  don't  believe  it  would  have 
been  put  upon  the  scales  if  I  had  had  a  first-class 


IN    THANS/TU    LNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  295 

ticket.  I  said  to  the  baggage-man,  "  Why  do  you 
weigh  that  trunk  ?  I  have  never  paid  extra  baggage 
upon  it."  He  replied,  "  Well,  I  just  thought  I'd 
weigh  'er."  He  charged  me  nine  dollars  to  Omaha 
for  sixty  pounds  over-weight.  I  begged  a.  Tv»an  who 
had  no  baggage  but  a  valise  to  assist  me  out  of  the 
dilemma.  He  consented  at  once,  and  presented  his 
ticket ;  but  the  baggage-man  said,  "  You  have  noth- 
irg  in  that  trunk,  have  you  ?  "  "  No,"  he  replied, 
"nothing."  "  Well,  then,  you  can't  help  her  any." 
44  What  a  shame  !  "  I  said  :  "  our  tickets  are  over  the 
same  route,  and  if  we  had  come  together  in  the  first 
place  you  would  not  have  refused."  Then  the  man 
of  weight  said,  "  If  you  will  take  out  part  of  the 
things,  and  put  them  in  a  bag,  I  will  check  them  off 
on  his  ticket."  The  bare  proposition  nearly  took  my 
breath  away.  My  good  bonnet  and  best  gown  in  a 
bag  on  a  fast  train,  checked  off  to  a  strange  man. 
44  If  he  had  a  collar  or  handkerchief,  any  thing  how- 
ever small,  in  that  trunk,"  continued  the  baggage- 
man, "  I  could  pass  it;  but  you  both  say  he  hasn't.'' 
A  toothpick  or  a  dicky-band  in  the  right  place  would 
have  saved  me  nine  dollars.  Several  of  the  male 
passengers  told  me  afterwards  that  their  trunks 
weighed  as  much  as  or  more  than  mine.  But  they 
were  not  of  the  proscribed  class :  so  they  were  al- 
lowed the  benefit  of  the  doubt. 

I  was  so  indignant  that  I  waited  over  six  hours  to 
see  the  superintendent,  who  was  up  the  road,  and 
then  t  )ok  the  express  to  catch  up  with  my  precious 


296  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

emigrant.  It  availed  nothing  however,  for  I  had  the 
nine  dollars  to  pay.  I  was  told  by  some  of  the  con- 
ductors on  the  road  that  excess  of  emigrant  baggage 
to  Omaha  was  ten  cents  a  pound,  and  not  fifteen,  and 
that  I  had  been  overcharged.  It  is  a  most  surprising 
arrangement  if  third-class  passengers  have  to  send 
their  baggage  first-class,  thus  making  their  dry  goods 
and  traps  superior  to  themselves.  However,  it  is 
good  clothes,  and  not  merit,  that  commands  respect. 
It  is  a  most  humiliating  confession  which  I  make 
when  I  say  that  my  friends,  even,  bow  lower  to  my 
silks,  laces,  jewels,  and  fine  wool  than  they  do  to  me 
—  both  men  and  women.  Let  me  go  down  street 
looking  like  a  shop-woman  or  upper  maid-servant,  and 
nearly  all  my  acquaintance  whom  I  may  chance  to 
meet  suddenly  become  near-sighted,  or  they  are 
searching  for  the  little  cloud  no  bigger  than  a  man's 
hand  in  the  streak  of  sky  above  the  street.  But  let 
me  go  down  elegantly  clad,  with  powdered  face,  —  I 
powder,  —  crimped  hair,  and  light  kids,  and  the  hats 
of  my  male  friends  %  off  so  suddenly  that  I  am  in 
an  agony  for  fear  they  have  taken  off  their  heads  in 
their  haste  to  recognize  me. 

A  lovely  lady  of  refinement  and  social  position  in 
New  York  City,  whose  charming  home  was  always 
open  to  me  for  a  long  or  a  short  sojourn  in  years  agone, 
said,  in  speaking  of  this  matter  of  the  superiority  of 
dry  goods  to  "  folks,"  «  When  I  go  to  market  with 
Bridget  in  the  morning,  dressed  plainly,  I  nearly 
always  stand  up  in  the  cars.  The  gentlemen  are  so 


IN  TRANSIT U    UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  207 

much  absorbed  in  the  digest  of  the  daily  news  that 
they  do  not  see  me.  But  in  the  afternoon,  when  I  am 
returning  from  making  calls  or  shopping,  handsomely 
dressed,  these  same  gentlemen,  wearied  with  the  toil 
of  counting-room  and  desk,  spring  up  out  of  their 
places  as  though  they  were  seated  on  a  powder-keg 
with  a  blazing  lucifer-match  inside  of  it,  and  beg  ^e 
to  sit  down  by  all  means."  Now,  this  beautiful  woman 
was  a  true  lady  at  all  times.  Apparel  had  nothing  to 
do  with  her  ladylike  bearing  and  refined  manners. 

But  to  return  to  Sacramento  and  my  journey.  I 
was  very  warm,  although  the  weather  was  very  cold, 
the  twenty  miles  I  rode  in  the  express-train  to  over- 
take the  emigrant.  If  that  conductor  had  asked  me 
extra  fare,  I  should  have  told  him  to  "  put  me  off  the 
train."  But  he  deigned  no  word  of  comment  when 
he  saw  my  ticket,  which  I  found  too  soon  was  a  badge 
of  dishonor  and  disgrace.  I  learned,  if  possible,  a 
stronger  lesson  than  I  had  been  learning  for  the  past 
—  verging  on  three  years  —  that  poverty  is  a  crime, 
and  that  a  poor  person,  if  she  be  a  woman,  is  to  suffer 
as  a  criminal ;  that  with  a  certain  class  of  people  she 
is  entitled  to  no  respect  whatever. 

The  emigrant  cars  were  switched  off  6n  a  side 
track,  at  the  twenty  miles  station,  awaiting  our  arri- 
val. They  were  quickly  coupled  to  the  fast  train, 
and  we  all  sped  on  together.  Here  was  a  conglom- 
eration and  gradation  of  quality.  The  head  of  the 
train,  minus  the  locomotive  and  feeder,  was  a  sumptu- 
ous palace  sleeper,  which  represented  the  aristocracy 


298  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

of  money,  and  perhaps  something  of  more  intrinsic 
value,  —  brains  and  personal  worth,  —  for  they  are  not 
always  divorced.  The  second  coach  was  a  first-class 
open  carriage,  for  the  accommodation  of  way-passen- 
gers, such  as  wanted  to  stop  off  at  Cape  Horn  or  the 
Devil's  Slide.  The  third  carriage  was  for  second- 
class  passengers.  Here  the  male  quality  came,  and 
vilified  the  air  with  poisonous  tobacco-smoke,  and 
converted  the  floor  into  a  vast  spittoon  which  soon 
became  a  reeking  puddle  of  filth.  What  mattered  it 
to  them  if  there  were  delicate  women  and  tender 
babes  in  this  car,  to  whom  every  inhalation  of  the 
Bacchanalian  wreath  was  strangulation?  Had  they 
not  paid  a  price  which  entitled  them  to  seats  in  two 
cars  instead  of  one  ?  What  if  every  first-class  woman 
passenger  had  come  into  this  car,  and  brought  a  little 
pot  of  assafoetida  or  skunk's  cabbage,  and  set  fire  to 
it,  and  then  held  her  nose  over  it  until  her  mouth 
was  filled  with  saliva,  which  she  at  once  proceeded 
to  squirt  out  over  the  floor  and  back  of  the  seat  in 
front  of  her  ?  What  would  be  said  of  such  a  per- 
formance ?  Would  it  be  tolerated  ?  No !  and  yet  the 
burning  assafoetida  and  skunk's  cabbage  would  not  be 
half  so  nasty,  stinking,  and  unwholesome  as  tobacco- 
smoke  is  to  some  sensitive  women  and  helpless  chil- 
dren. 

Ah,  men  and  brothers  and  protectors !  do  you  ever 
consider  what  liberties  you  take,  and  how  many  more 
ind  ilgences  you  accord  yourselves  than  you  accord 
the  dear  creatures  that  you  so  gallantly  protect  ? 


IN   TRANSITU    UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  299 

Then  came  the  two  emigrant  cars.  They  formed 
the  tail.  What  a  fall  was  there  —  from  head  to  tail ! 
Yet  we,  the  occupants  of  the  last  named,  felt  to 
rejoice  greatly  that  we  were  accounted  worthy  to 
occupy  the  position,  and  be  whirled  along  at  express 
rate.  Our  short-lived  joy  melted  into  grief  at  Ogden, 
for  there  we  were  attached  —  a  misplaced  attachment 
—  to  the  plodding  freight-train.  Previous  to  this 
transfer,  I  had  begged  of  the  polite  conductors  the 
privilege  of  riding  in  the  first-class  coach,  because 
tobacco-smoke  was  so  offensive  to  me ;  and  after  the 
emigrants  had  exchanged  their  inseparable  compan- 
ion —  the  pipe  —  for  the  pillow,  I  noiselessly  crept 
in,  and  arranged  my  two  seats  into  a  kind  of  bed,  and 
vainly  courted  the  god  of  slumber ;  but  the  air  was 
so  vitiated,  so  foul,  that  it  could  have  been  cut  in 
slices,  and  hung  on  a  line.  Those  emigrant  smokers 
hate  pure  air.  Poison  could  not  be  more  distasteful 
to  them.  If  I  raised  my  window  an  inch  high,  some 
one  of  them  would  manage  to  sneeze  —  most  likely 
he  had  tickled  his  nose  with  a  straw  to  produce  the 
admonition.  Then  there  would  be  a  chorus  of  voices 
exclaiming,'  "  You  are  catching  cold,  friend :  there  is 
a  draught.  There  must  be  a  window  lusted  some- 
where ; "  at  which  they  all  looked  in  my  direction, 
and  the  other  woman  (there  were  but  two  of  us) 
would  call  out,  "  Madame,  will  you  pleze  schud  de 
winda  ?  I'z  throubled  wid  de  rumetizm."  What  was 
I  to  do  ?  I  did  not  dare  sleep  in  the  first-class  car, 
even  should  the  conductor  consent  to  such  a  viola- 


300  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

tion  of  rules,  for  fear  that  he  might  forget  to  tell  me 
should  he  switch  off  the  tail  in  the  night ;  for  I  had 
some  valuable  baggage  in  it  that  I  had  paid  no  extra 
price  upon. 

What  was  the  atmosphere  of  those  cars  composed 
of?  The  individual  odor  of  all  nationalities  mingled 
with  the  smell  of  food  peculiar  to  each,  and  tobacco- 
smoke.  In  the  one  where  I  was,  there  was  a  Swede 
and  a  Norwegian,  Americans,  Englishmen,  Irishmen, 
Dutchmen,  Germans,  Polish  Jews,  and  what  other 
extractions  of  the  human  family  I  know  not.  The 
perfume  and  habits  of  the  "faderland"  clung  to 
each  one  of  them  like  dew  to  a  flower.  Each  man 
smoked  a  pipe,  and  such  phthisicky  pipes  I  The  air 
as  it  was  sucked  through  them  struggled,  groaned, 
and  gurgled  like  a  drowning  man.  It  seemed  to 
protest,  and  say,  "  Do  I  not  smell  badly  enough  as  I 
am?  Am  I  not  made  loathsome  enough  with  the 
odor  of  Stilton  cheese,  onions,  garlics,  soiled  clothing, 
and  not  over -clean  bodies,  without  being  drawn 
through  such  a  nasty  conduit,  and  decaying  teeth, 
to  be  emitted  in  putrid  breath?"  Every  particle 
of  life  was  scorched  out  of  the  air  by  two  stoves  in 
either  end  of  the  car,  which  were  kept  at  a  white 
heat  day  and  night. 

Looking  over  their  sleeping  forms  at  night,  I  mar- 
velled that  they  did  not  rise  up  and  slay  each  other 
in  a  mad  frenzy  of  suffocation,  as  the  eighteen  hun- 
dred prisoners  in  the  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta  did. 
They  were  confined  in  a  dungeon  without  an  ade- 


7^   TRANSITU    UND^R  DIFFICULTIES.  301 

quate  supply  of  fresh  air,  only  for  one  night ;  and  all 
that  survived  the  infernal  ordeal  were  a  hundred 
and  forty-six,  and  nearly  all  of  these  came  out  in  a 
high  state  of  putrid  fever.  Knowing  as  I  did  the 
ills  that  blood-poisoning  is  heir  to,  I  dared  not  think 
what  I  was  taking  into  my  clean  lungs,  that  have 
such  a  capacity  for  fresh  air.  But  they  were  in  an 
active  state  of  rebellion :  I  coughed  constantly,  not 
from  a  cold,  but  from  nicotine  and  other  poisons. 
Never  did  I  feel  the  pangs  of  poverty  so  sharply  as 
I  did  then,  when  I  was  denied  enough  of  the  pure 
air  of  heaven  to  breathe.  I  could  feel  the  burning 
eyes  of  the  zymotic  fiend  upon  me.  For  a  day  and  a 
night  I  was  very  sick,  and  many  of  the  others  were 
ill  also ;  but  I  could  not  persuade  them  that  they 
were  suffering  from  the  poison  of  their  own  contami- 
nations, —  carbonic  acid  gas,  and  the  secretions  from 
the  skin  and  pulmonary  mucous  surfaces,  —  which 
proper  ventilation  would  remedy. 

The  emigrant  cars  west  of  Omaha  are  nothing  but 
boxes  with  windows  and  doors  in  them,  but  no  ven- 
tilators. They  are  very  low:  a  tall  man  can  barely 
stand  upright  in  them.  In  every  way  they  are  a 
disgrace  to  the  company,  and  should  be  remanded 
back  to  their  original  use,  —  lumber  cars.  I  wonder 
how  many  of  those  victims  are  sick  or  dead  from  the 
effects  of  inhaling  the  foetid,  deadly  combination  of 
impurities  which  took  the  place  of  air  in  those  cars. 
I,  for  one,  was  sick  unto  death  for  months  after  my 
arrival  in  Boston,  from  blood-poisoning. 


502  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

At  Ogden  I  changed  into  the  rear  car.  It  con- 
tained fewer  passengers,  and  I  knew  if  they  smoked 
all  the  time  there  would  be  some  chance  for  me  to 
have  my  window  open.  Then,  again,  the  larger 
number  in  that  car  were  Americans,  —  artisans,  I 
think,  who,  having  failed  in  their  expectations  on 
the  Golden  Shores,  were  returning  home. 

I  was  comparatively  comfortable  during  the  day. 
The  gentleman  who  had  so  politely  tried  to  assist 
me  in  getting  my  baggage  through  had  the  seats  in 
front  of  mine.  I  had  no  idea  that  these  men,  any 
one  of  them,  would  consider  me  an  intruder  upon 
their  masculine  rights ;  but  subsequent  develop- 
ments showed  me  my  error. 

Every  thing  passed  off  quietly  during  the  day  ;  but 
at  night  some  little  girls  came  in  at  one  of  the 
stations,  vending  cider  and  apples,  —  girls  not  over 
a  dozen  years  of  age.  To  these  children  I  heard 
language  expressed  which  I  could  never  have  be- 
lieved would  have  been  spoken  outside  of  a  bawd- 
house.  This  language  came  out  of  the  mouths  of 
four  young  men  that  I  took  to  be  American-born  at 
least.  From  their  conversation  I  learned  that  they 
were  educated  for  mechanics,  but  that  they  had 
taken  a  hand  as  conductors  and  drivers  on  street- 
cars, &c.,  &c. ;  that  they  were  ready  as  "  Jacks  at 
all  trades"  where  there  was  a  chance  to  "knock 
down"  as  they  termed  putting  their  employers' 
money  in  the  wrong  pocket. 

When  it  was  time  to  arrange  for  sleeping,  one  of 


IN   TRANS  ITU    UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  303 

these  young  desperadoes  was  detailed  to  look  after 
the  fires  during  the  first  watches.  For  the  short 
space  of  an  hour,  perhaps,  all  was  quiet,  like  the 
lull  before  the  tempest ;  and  then  the  pent-up  Satan 
within  them,  that  had  been  somewhat  exorcised  by 
my  presence,  burst  forth  in  all  its  frenzy.  They 
fought  a  mimic  battle  with  their  broom  (they  owned 
a  broom  :  whether  they  had  "  knocked  it  down  "  or 
paid  for  it,  they  alone  can  tell),  the  poker,  and  the 
slat  -  bottomed  seats ;  using  such  oaths  and  such 
obscene  language  as  I  could  not  believe  would  be 
allowed  in  the  lowest  brothel  in  the  civilized  world. 
They  indulged  in  every  relief  of  nature  excepting 
one ;  using  the  zinc  at  the  back  of  the  stove  for  a 
pissoir,  until  the  fluid-excrement  ran  in  a  vile  flood 
through  the  car.  Not  a  word  of  reproof  was  spoken 
by  any  one,  although  there  must  have  been  from  ten 
to  fifteen  respectable  men  in  the  car. 

As  this  night  of  horrors  wore  slowly  away,  and  it 
was  nearing  daybreak,  one  of  the  youthful  villains 
was  narrating  his  individual  experience  in  a  San 
Francisco  brothel ;  at  which  another  of  them  felt 
that  it  was  wise  to  check  him  on  my  account.  Then 
this  young  male  bawd  raised  his  voice  to  a  higher 
key,  and  with  the  vilest  oaths  and  execrations  and 
personalities  cried  out,  "  If  she  didn't  want  to  hear 
and  see  such  things,  why  did  she  come  amongst  us  ? 
What  business  has  she  in  this  car?  " 

Forbearance  had  ceased  with  me :  I  rose  to  my 
feet,  and  faced  these  PROTECTORS,  saying,  "  Young 


304  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

man,  I  have  just  as  good  a  right  to  occupy  this  car  as 
you  have ;  and  I  have  the  same  right  to  expect  cour- 
teous treatment  from  you  as  you  have  from  me.  I 
came  into  this  car  because  the  people  in  it  were 
mostly  my  countrymen,  and  it  was  reasonable  to 
expect  civil  treatment  from  them :  I  received  it  at 
the  hands  of  foreigners  in  the  other  car.  It  is  my 
misfortune  that  poverty  compels  me  to  cross  the 
continent  in  this  way :  still  I  have  the  same  right  to 
be  poor  that  you  have.  In  Europe  I  have  rode  at  all 
hours  of  the  day  and  night  in  a  third-class  coach,  but 
I  never  saw  an  obscene  act,  or  heard  an  oath  or  a 
vulgar  word.  If  you,  each  one  of  you  who  have 
made  this  night  hideous  with  all  sin,  all  folly,  if  you 
have  mothers,  sisters,  or  sweethearts,  it  is  a  marvel 
how  you  can  ever  again  look  them  in  the  face  with- 
out a  blush,  when  you  remember  the  ruffianism  of 
the  past  night  during  which  you  have  sought  to  out- 
rage a  fellow-passenger,  and  that  one  a  woman.  You 
have  undertaken  to  drive  me  out  of  this  car,  but  you 
will  not :  I  shall  remain  here  unless  I  am  forcibly 
ejected." 

Not  a  word  was  spoken  in  answer  to  my  reproof ; 
and  from  that  time  until  they  abandoned  the  situa- 
tion, I  heard  and  saw  nothing  to  offend  the  most  fas- 
tidious. They  had  a  roll-call,  in  which  they  dubbed 
each  other  Shadrack,  Meshack,  and  Abednego  ;  but  it 
would  take  a  furnace  heated  seven  times  hotter  to 
purify  these  dastards  in  the  form  and  semblance  of 
men,  .than  it  did  to  test  the  faith  of  the  illustrious 
trio  of  old. 


IN   TRANSITU    UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  305 

In  the  morning  when  they  made  their  coffee  one 
of  them  brought  some  of  it  to  me,  as  a  kind  of  peace- 
offering,  and  begged  my  pardon  for  his  share  in  the 
night's  orgy.  When  he  came  for  the  cup  he  found 
the  contents  untasted.  He  exclaimed,  "  Why  didn't 
you  drink  the  coffee  ?  "  I  replied,  "  I  did  not  dare 
drink  it."  He  looked  shocked,  whether  he  felt  so 
or  not,  as  he  said,  "  This  is  the  most  cutting  rebuke  I 
ever  had  in  my  life." 

Soon  after  breakfast  was  over,  and  they  had  swept 
out  the  car  with  their  broom,  the  laid  spirit  within 
them  began  to  rouse.  If  they  could  not  drive  me 
out,  they  would  go  themselves  like  their  four-footed 
brethren  of  old  that  ran  howling  into  the  sea.  So 
they  paid  five  dollars  to  have  the  use  of  a  vacant  car 
to  carouse  in.  This  vacant  car  had  cushioned  seats  ; 
and  they  brought  me  two  of  them,  as  another  peace- 
offering,  for  a  bed.  I  hold  no  malice  against  them, 
but  make  this  record  to  show  how  the  rights  of 
women  are  respected  under  peculiar  circumstances. 

What  they  did  in  that  other  car  I  know  not,  with 
the  exception  that  I  was  told  that  they  had  broken 
one  of  the  windows ;  and  the  broken  broomhandle, 
upon  which  they  had  evidently  been  practising  the 
refined  and  graceful  accomplishments  of  the  mid- 
night pursuers  of  the  unlucky  "  Tarn,"  spoke  for 
itself.  What  else  they  could  have  done  in  there  that 
they  did  not  do  in  the  car  that  I  was  in,  passes  my 
ken,  unless  they  stood  on  their  heads,  and  pbyed 
football  with  the  red-hot  stoves,  or  pig-backed  with 


306  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

the  deacon.  There  was  one  among  the 
—  a  Jersey  deacon, — so  he  said.  He  was  as  mod- 
est as  Uriah  Heep ;  confessed  to  me  that  he  was 
unlearned,  but  had  a  "leamV  that  way."  How- 
ever, I  noticed  that  in  a  discussion  on  taxation,  upon 
which  subject  I  am  almost  as  tender-footed  as  I  am 
upon  Probate  practice,  when  I  chipped  in  he  took 
not  the  slightest  notice  of  my  remarks,  although  I 
perhaps  spoke  as  intelligently  upon  the  subject  as 
he.  What  were  a  woman's  views  worth  to  a  man  ? 
Probably  women  keep  silent  in  the  temple  where  he 
handles  the  bread  and  wine. 

One  night  after  all  was  quiet,  I  laid  down  upon 
my  hard  pillow,  made  out  of  my  waterproof  and 
some  other  things,  with  my  nose  to  the  air-hole 
smuggled  under  my  veil.  I  was  roused  from  my 
fitful  sleep  by  a  dream  in  which  I  saw  my  demi-train 
slowly  dragging  over  the  snow  after  unpolished 
masculine  boots,  while  the  head  of  the  owner  of  the 
boots  was  protected  from  the  storm  of  snow  and  sleet 
by  my  Chantilly-covered  parasol.  I  started  up  in  a 
paroxysm  of  perspiration,  to  find  my  nose  full  of 
miniature  icicles,  and  to  hear  my  opposite  neighbors 
(there  were  two  lodged  together)  say,  "  She  groans  a 
two-horse  power :  she  must  be  sick,  or  else  she  has  a 
bad  conscience."  "  No,  my  friends,"  I  replied  as  I 
rubbed  my  nose  to  see  if  it  would  ever  be  of  any 
further  use  to  me,  "  I  have  not  a  diseased  conscience  : 
it  is  the  want  of  conscience  in  other  people  that 
troubles  me." 


IN   TRANSITU    UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  307 

At  Omaha  we  were  dumped  off  at  the  Emigrant 
House  for  a  night.  What  is  this  delay  for,  in  which 
every  one  is  mulcted  of  fifty  cents  for  a  night's  lodg- 
ing, whether  he  uses  a  room  or  not  ?  Who  is  bene- 
fited by  this  enforced  toll  of  four  bits  per  capita  at 
the  emigrant  rendezvouz  ?  First  and  second  class 
passengers  are  not  treated  to  a  stop-off  willy-nilly. 
Getting  in  at  half-past  nine,  P.M.,  and  going  out  at  five, 
A.M.,  gives  no  one  time  to  go  to  a  comfortable  hotel 
and  get  washed  and  a  night's  rest. 

I  said  to  the  clerk,  "  Can  I  sit  here  by  the  stove 
all  night  ?  "  "  No,  but  after  twelve  you  can  sit  out  in 
the  men's  room.  But  why  don't  you  go  to  bed  ?  "  he 
queried.  u  I  prefer  to  sit  up,"  I  replied.  The  other 
woman  and  her  husband  had  gone  to  their  room,  arid 
I  was  beginning  to  feel  very  anxious  about  being 
alone  with  strange  and  very  rough-looking  men.  All 
the  emigrants  travelling  with  me  had  either  gone  up 
town  or  to  their  rooms  here.  Presently  I  heard  very 
loud  talking  at  the  clerk's  desk ;  and  looking  in  that 
direction  I  was  greatly  astonished  to  see  my  sister 
emigrant  holding  that  amiable  functionary  by*  the 
shirt-collar,  and  vociferating,  "  He  duzzent  wear  no 
pee-stole.  He  never  draws  no  pee-stole.  It  ish  one 
pig  LIE!" 

I  went  over  to  the  scene  of  conflict,  and  said, 
'•  What's  the  trouble  here  ?  Who's  got  a  pistol  ? '" 
The  clerk  replied,  as  he  disengaged  himself  from  his 
female  antagonist,  who  had  reversed  the  tables,  and 
was  heroically  protecting  her  protector,  "  I  hain't  goin 
tew  hev  no  Jews  run  this  here  shanty." 


308  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

It  seems  that  these  people,  who  had  seen  better 
days,  were  not  satisfied  with  their  accommodations, 
and  desired  to  pay  a  larger  price  to  secure  a  better 
bed,  but  the  clerk  had  none  to  give  them ;  and  that 
in  the  discussion  the  poor  Pole  had  unluckily  put  his 
hand  under  his  coat-tail  after  a  handkerchief,  or  to 
dislodge  an  imagination  caught  in  the  mischievous 
bed  which  was  as  "  hardt  as  de  pords"  The  clerk 
had  taken  the  movement  for  a  hostile  one,  and  accused 
the  offender  of  intending  to  draw  a  pistol. 

I  poured  some  of  the  sweet-oil  of  my  nature  upon 
the  troubled  waters  —  and  there  was  peace  estab- 
lished. Then  I  prevailed  upon  the  discomfited  Poles 
to  help  me  kill  the  weary  hours  which  kept  vigil 
between  that  time  and  daybreak,  beside  the  two-story 
stove  in  the  men's  waiting-room,  where  the  piercing 
wind  dashed  in  with  a  whistle  under  one  door,  and 
dashed  out  with  a  whistle  under  the  other. 

I  have  watched  with  the  sick  as  the  leaden  hours  of 
darkness  crept  slowly  by,  counting,  meantime,  the 
fitful  wave  of  life  as  it  ebbed  to  and  fro  of  those  I 
loved ;  I  have  sat  out  the  stars  alone  with  the  dead, 
keeping  lips  that  would  never  smile  upon  me  again 
moist  with  perfume,  and  placed  my  warm  hand  throb- 
bing with  life  upon  the  white  pulseless  clay  beneath 
the  damp  locks,  and  experienced  no  fear ;  I  have  been 
high  up  in  the  Swiss  Alps  when  the  gathering  storm 
has  burst  in  all  its  fury,  with  clouds  and  red  lightning, 
at  my  feet,  and  dazzling,  lurid  electricity  all  around 
me,  while  the  mad  thunder  hurled  itself  from  peak  tc 


IN  T RAN  SITU   UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  309 

peak  with  a  thousand  deafening  reverberations  as  I 
rushed  up  and  up  the  zigzag  path  until  I  arrived 
breathless  and  exhausted  at  the  little  ~chdlet  set  like 
an  eagle's  nest  under  the  cliff ;  I  have  been  in  a  ship 
that  lay  all  night  in  the  cradle  of  the  deep  — stranded 
in  mid-ocean  —  when  the  tempest  was  so  fierce  that 
she  dared  not  cope  with  it ;  and  I  have  passed  other 
nights  of  peril  and  discomfort  which  I  hope  I  may 
never  be  called  upon  to  face  their  like  again :  and 
yet  the  combination  of  circumstances  which  brought 
me  to  my  present  lowty  state,  the  surroundings,  the 
people,  all  united,  conspired  to  make  this  night  only 
second,  in  my  experience,  to  the  one  spent  upon  the 
cars  a  few  nights  before  amid  the  fiendish  revels  of 
abandoned  men. 

On  leaving  Omaha  I  parted  company  forever,  I 
trust,  with  those  debauchees.  Their  course  lay  over 
another  route  than  mine,  and  may  it  continue  in  that 
direction ! 

The  coach  delegated  to  our  use  was  in  every  way 
first-class,  excepting  the  tobacco-smoke.  There  were 
but  a  few  people,  however,  in  this  car,  so  that  the  air 
was  much  purer  than  it  had  been  in  the  others.  The 
conductor  told  me  that  I  could  go  into  the  first-class 
carriage  in  welcome  as  far  as  he  was  concerned ;  but 
that  there  would  be  several  different  conductors  ere 
we  reached  Chicago,  and  that  he  could  not  vouch  for 
their  leniency.  I  said,  "  Three  years  ago  this  month 
I  passed  over  this  road  en  route  for  Europe.  I  then 
had  a  middle  section  of  the  palace  sleeper  all  to  my- 


510  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

self.  At  every  change  made,  the  agent  entered,  and, 
calling  out  my  name,  said  there  was  a  centre  section 
reserved  for  me  by  a  despatch-order  from  my  hus- 
band. When  I  reached  the  Everett  House,  New  York, 
I  found  a  suite  of  apartments  provided  for  me  in  the 
same  way.  I  have  travelled  many  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  miles,  and  this  is  the  first  time  want  of  money 
has  compelled  me  to  go  any  way  but  first-class." 

At  Dunkirk  I  was  put  into  a  fir-t-class  car ;  and 
from  there  to  Buffalo,  from  Buffalo  to  Binghamton, 
from  Binghamton  to  Albany,  I  rode  first-class.  Not 
a  conductor  so  much  as  intimated  that  I  was  out  of 
my  sphere.  I  was  delayed  two  nights  at  Binghamton, 
and  one  at  Albany.  At  the  latter  place  I  exclaimed, 
44  Well,  I'll  pay  no  more  hotel  bills  !  I'll  stay  in  tins 
depot  all  night  unless  I'm  put  out  of  it."  And  I  kept 
my  word.  I  was  feeling  very  ill ;  but  I  arranged  my- 
self in  two  chairs  close  to  the  heater,  and  prepared  for 
another  night's  watching.  Some  other  passengers  in 
the  gentlemen's  waiting-room  did  the  same.  Several 
officers  were  lounging  about  the  rooms  all  night  ;  men 
who  got  good  pay,  without  a  doubt,  for  their  night 
services.  At  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  came  two 
horny-handed  "  angels "  with  mops,  scrub-brushes- 
brooms,  and  pails,  to  "rid  up"  the  waiting-rooms. 
These  women  were  in  their  true  sphere.  They  did 
not  unite  the  " softness  of  the  dove  to  the  meddle- 
someness of  the  magpie,"  as  it  is  claimed  that  the 
women  who  "buzzed  politics  "in  the  wl-n*  which 
were  honored  by  the  presence  of  the  man  of  destiny 


IN  TRANS  ITU    UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  311 

did.  Ah,  no  !  no  imperial  autocrat  desired  ^to  banish 
them,  because  they  were  not  troublesome  De  Stacls 
nor  intriguing  De  Polignacs.  These  "  angels  "  were 
tobacco-spit  scrubbresses  ;  and  the  havoc  they  made  in 
that  direction  with  hot  soapsuds  and  stiff  brooms  was 
something  miraculous.  The  men  gathered  up  their 
legs  and  feet  into  a  bow-knot,  to  prevent  them  from 
being  parboiled,  and  sat  upon  it  while  they  cracked 
coarse  jokes  with  the  "  angels."  Little  dogs  ran 
howling  into  the  street  at  the  first  sniff  of  boiling- 
hot  tobacco-juice.  When  they —  the  "  angels  "  —  had 
finished,  I  said  to  one  of  them,  "  Please  excuse  me, 
madam,  for  it  is  no  idle  curiosity  that  prompts  the 
question  ;  but  how  much  are  you  paid  a  month  for 
this  two  hours  work  ?  "  "  Twenty-five  dollars  apiece," 
she  replied.  For  three  hundred  dollars  a  year  these 
poor  women  rise  at  three  o'clock  for  three  hundred 
and  sixty-five  mornings,  in  the  heat  of  summer  and 
the  frost  of  winter ;  and  they  are  glad  and  eager  to 
get  the  opportunity  to  do  it. 

As  nights  are  not  interminable,  day  came  at  last, 
and  with  it  the  train  for  Boston.  I  of  course  seated 
myself  in  a  first-class  carriage,  arguing  in  this  wise : 
"  I  am  so  ill  from  the  effects  of  tobacco-poison,  night- 
watching,  and  general  exhaustion  from  so  long  and 
uncomfortable  a  journey,  that  no  one  but  a  monster 
would  compel  me  to  ride  another  inch  amid  the  nau- 
sea of  tobacco-smoke.  Then,  again,  it  takes  no  more 
*team,  and  whistle,  and  puff,  to  convey  me  over  the 
road  in  one  car  than  it  does  in  another." 


312  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

I  was  fast  asleep  when  the  conductor  came.  Half 
rousing,  I  mechanically  drew  out  my  ticket,  and 
showed  it  to  him.  The  moment  he  glanced  at  it,  he 
put  on  the  front  of  Jupiter,  —  as  near  as  such  a 
<k  missing  link  "  could.  He  was  lean,  cadaverous,  dys- 
peptic, and  looked  as  though  he  had  just  been  taken 
down  from  some  smoke-house,  where  he  had  been 
forgotten  for  a  century.  Said  he,  "  Madam,  why  did 
you  come  into  this  car  where  you  don't  belong  ?  " 
"  I  generally  belong  in  this  car,"  I  replied ;  "  but 
misfortunes  for  which  I'm  not  to  blame  obliged  me 
to  make  the  transit  from  San  Francisco  on  a  low- 
grade  ticket.  I  am  very  ill,  as  I  have  had  a  tedious 
passage  with  many  delays;  and  I  beg  of  you  to  let 
me  remain  in  this  car.  There  are  very  few  people 
in  it,  and  I  cough  nearly  every  breath  where  the  air 
is  full  of  tobacco-smoke.  I  have  rode  first-class  ever 
since  I  left  Dunkirk,  and  you  are  the  first  conductor 
that  has  so  much  as  mentioned  that  I  was  in  the 
wrong  car."  "  If  you  pay  me  three  dollars,  you  can 
stay  here;  otherwise  you  will  have  to  go  into  the 
other  car."  Having  delivered  himself  of  this  man- 
date with  all  the  loftiness  which  inferior  specimens  of 
the  genus  homo  assume  towards  women,  he  strode  out. 
A  little  power  is  a  dangerous  thing. 

I  cuddled  down  under  my  wraps,  hoping  that  he 
might  forget  his  victim,  and  was  asleep  again, — so 
sick,  so  tired,  so  sleepy,  — when  I  was  startled  by  an 
authoritative  voice,  exclaiming,  "  Madam,  you  must 
come  out  of  this  car,  or  pay  the  extra  fare."  I 


IN  TRANS  ITU   UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  313 

started  up  in  time  to  see  the  brakeman  grasp  my 
portmanteau,  obedient  to  my  tormentor's  command, 
"  Take  out  these  traps.  *' 

The  car  into  which  I  was  taken  was  in  every 
respect  precisely  like  the  one  I  had  left.  The  only 
difference  was  that  this  one  was  blue  with  tobacco- 
smoke.  I  said,  loud  enough  for  all  in  the  car  to  hear, 
"I  am  sick,  and  this  is  an  outrage.  No  one  but  a 
man  with  the  instincts  of  a  brute  would  do  such  an 
inhuman  act.  I  have  come  all  the  way  from  Cali- 
fornia; and  this  is  the  first  time  I  have  been  ejected 
from  a  comfortable  place,  where  there  was  one  to  be 
had." 

u  Yes,"  said  this  apology  for  a  man,  "  you  have 
lived  in  California,  and  that  accounts  for  the  way 
you  talk.  I  am  obeying  the  orders  of  the  company, 
madam."  "  Is  it  the  rule  of  this  company  to  compel 
a  sick  woman  to  ride  in  a  car  full  of  poison,  because 
she  is  too  poor  to  pay  first-class  price  ?  There  are 
exceptions  to  all  rules.  Is  a  dying  child,  dying  of 
nicotine  poison,  to  be  kept  in  this  car  until  it  is  stran- 
gled? Can  it  be  possible  that  the  owners  and  direc- 
tors of  any  road  in  Christian  New  England  are  such 
human  fiends  and  financial  Judases  ?  If  so,  then  all 
honor  to  the  servitor  who  obeys  their  rules  with  such 
fidelity !  " 

I  claim  that  I  have  a  right  to  ride  second  or  third 
class  without  being  poisoned.  Tobacco-smoke  is 
poison  to  me.  I  never,  allowed  it  in  my  home  when 
I  kept  house,  nor  in  my  parlors  at  a  hotel.  When 


314  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

men  said  to  my  husband  that  he  was  pretty  well 
domesticated  when  he  did  not  dare  to  even  light  his 
cigar  in  the  hall,  he  replied,  "  The  smoke  of  the  weed 
offends  my  wife  ;  and  if  she  were  to  indulge  in  a  per- 
nicious habit  which  did  her  no  good,  and  was  very 
objectionable  to  me,  I  should  lose  respect  for  her,  and 
have  a  just  cause  to  doubt  her  love  for  me  —  and 
vice  versa." 

I  said  to  that  conductor  who  was  so  conscientious 
in  obeying  rules,  "  I  would  like  you  to  give  me  your 
name  as  a  souvenir.1"  "  Oh,  }^es,  certainly !  "  he  sneer- 
ingly  replied,  "you  shall  have  it  if  that  will  do  you 
any  good."  I  made  the  request  three  times;  and 
each  time  he  said  "  Yes,"  but  did  "no."  I  tlu-u 
asked  a  boy  at  a  station  ;  and  he  replied,  "  That  con- 
ductor's name  is  Jolly  Marsh."  Jolly!  He  looked 
any  thing  but  jolly.  His  appearance  and  behavior 
suggested  a  pestilential  marsh  filled  with  Pandora's 
plagues.  I  suppose  his  jolliness  consists  in  thrusting 
tick  women  into  a  nauseating  atmosphere,  when  thc-v 
refuse  to  give  him  three  dollars  extra  fare. 

It  was  bitter  cold ;  but  I  raised  the  window,  and 
sat  in  the  piercing  draught,  coughing  at  nearly  every 
inspiration.  Did  any  person  in  that  car  abate  one 
puff  of  smoke?  No.  What  was  the  life  or  death 
of  an  emigrant  woman  to  them,  as  weighed  against 
their  indulgence  of  an  acquired  appetite  ?  One 
young  man  with  his  feet  hanging  over  the  arm  of 
the  seat  said,  as  he  complacently  watched  the  curl- 
ing poison  float  over  his  head,  "  I  always  go  third 


fN  TRANS  ITU    UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  SIS 

class,  'cause  I  can  do  just  as  I "  (strong  expletive) 
44  please." 

Every  man  who  entered  the  car  that  day  —  and 
there  were  many  exchanges,  for  it  was  a  way-train 
— knew  at  a  glance  that  I  was  a  sick  woman:  they 
knew,  too,  that  I  was  strangled  nearly  to  death  b}- 
the  smoke  ;  for  I  continually  fanned  it  away  from  me 
with  my  veil,  and  held  a  heavy  woollen  shawl  over 
my  mouth.  These  men  —  there  was  no  other  woman 
—  were  the  gentlemen  of  the  towns  through  which 
we  passed.  There  were  but  three  of  us  emigrants 
left, — an  old  Irish  gentleman,  a  youth  who  stopped 
off  twenty  miles  west  of  Boston,  and  myself.  Not 
one  of  those  gentlemen  would  have  presumed  to 
smoke  in  my  drawing-room  without  my  consent. 
Not  one  of  them  would  have  failed  to  accord  me  the 
courtesy  which  every  gentleman  accords  a  lady,  if 
I  had  met  them  under  any  other  circumstances. 

I  accidentally  dropped  the  stopple  to  my  smelling- 
salts  bottle,  and  asked  the  newsboy  to  pick,  it  up  for 
me.  He  said  that  he  could  not  reach  it.  I  told  him 
to  use  the  crooked  handle  of  my  umbrella,  which 
was  lying  upon  the  seat  in  front  of  me.  He  did  as 
directed;  but  on  replacing  the  umbrella  he  gave  it  a 
dexterous  turn  known  to  boys,  and  threw  my  lunch- 
pail  which  was  upon  the  seat  to  the  floor.  It  came 
down  with  a  crash,  breaking  a  little  pitcher  and  a 
wine-glass,  valuable  only  from  association.  At  the 
sight  of  the  wreck  there  rose  such  a  yell  of  delight 
behind  me,  that  for  a  moment  I  imagined  myself  in 
the  Black  Hills  with  a  scalping-knife  over  my  head. 


316  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

The  boy  pretended  to  be  very  sorry,  and  said  it 
was  purely  accidental,  &c.  After  gathering  up  the 
fragments,  and  tossing  the  broken  pitcher  out  of  the 
window,  I  turned  round  in  my  seat  to  see  who  it 
was  that  could  imitate  Camanches  so  well,  and  be 
so  hilarious  over  the  augmented  sufferings  and  dis- 
comfort of  a  sick  woman.  Each  and  all  of  them, 
old  and  young,  had  the  outward  appearance  of  gen- 
tlemen. I  wondered  in  what  particular  part  of  their 
bodies  the  hyena  slumbered:  it  was  quiet  then.  I 
also  wondered  if  it  had  been  a  relative  of  theirs,  a 
mother,  wife,  sister,  or  friend  even,  if  they  would 
have  yelped  with  delight  at  a  malicious  trick  played 
upon  such  an  one  by  a  perverse  boy  ?  That  boy 
took  his  cue  from  men. 

Some,  perhaps  many,  will  ask  why  I  put  the  re- 
volting facts  contained  in  this  chapter  upon  paper 
and  in  a  book?  They  will  reason  in  the  same  wax- 
that  a  man  did  in  San  Francisco,  who  would  not  buv 
my  book  upon  the  grounds,  that,  if  the  laws  wi-re 
bad,  the  less  that  knew  it  the  better.  I  replied, 
"  Would  you  condemn  a  man  who  signalled  an  engi- 
neer that  a  bridge  was  gone,  thus  saving  hundreds 
of  lives,  because  he  did  not  let  the  train  dash  over 
the  precipice  to  certain  destruction?"  Will  tho 
nausea  of  reading  this  chapter  parallel  the  suffering 
of  the  one  who  endured  it?  I  give  it  to  more  firmly 
impress  upon  your  minds  the  necessity  of  abolishing 
this  frightful  curse  to  widows  and  orphans, —  this 
Probate  inquisition ;  I  give  it  that  you  may  judge  of 


IN  TRANSITU    UNDER   DIFFICULTIES.  317 

its  guilt  by  my  sufferings,  under  all  the  cruel  cir- 
cumstances through  which  I  have  been  dragged  by 
it  —  both  directly  and  indirectly  ;  I  give  it  to  show 
that  a  disfranchised  person  cannot  travel  from  rmn 
end  of  this  free  federation  to  the  other  without 
insult.  She  can  with  this  qualification  :  "  If  she  be 
rich,  or  can  afford  first-class  tickets,  it  matters  not 
ho\v  obtained." 

To  what  conclusions  will  such  an  ordeal  as  I  have 
passed  through  bring  a  person  ?  First — If  a  woman 
is  poor,  she  should  hide  herself  under  a  bushel,  and 
never  stir  abroad,  particularly  in  an  emigrant  car. 
Second  —  That  if  she  does  she  should  be  willing  to 
die  of  suffocation  and  nicotine  poison  unmurmuring- 
ly.  Third — That  none  but  the  rich  are  protected. 
The  poor  are  subjugated,  snubbed,  spit  upon,  in- 
sulted, outraged,  scorned,  and  hated.  I  was  hated 
instead  of  being  pitied  for  being  in  that  car.  They 
did  not  want  the  window  open  to  let  in  the  cold,  and 
let  out  a  modicum  of  their  fumigation.  "  Why  didn't 
I  pay  the  extra  three  dollars,  and  leave  them  in 
peace,  instead  of  being  a  sitting  reproach  to  their 
nasty  habits  ?  "  Fourth  —  Women  with  second  or 
third  class  tickets,  in  this  country,  are  entitled  to 
no  respect  while  travelling.  In  Europe  second-class 
passengers  are  never  subjected  to  the  strangulation 
of  tobacco-smoke.  I  said  to  one  of  the  conductors 
on  the  Central  Pacific,  "  What  is  the  reason  that 
there  is  not  a  separate  smoking-car,  instead  of  using 
the  second-class  ?  "  He  replied,  "  It  is  to  force  as 


318  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

many  as  possible  to  go  first-class."  This  cruel  injus- 
tice falls  entirely  upon  women, — people  who  earn 
and  have  the  least  money.  Eve^  man  can  go  second- 
class  or  emigrant,  because  every  man  nearly  uses  the 
"  devil's  weed  "  in  some  form  or  other.  Is  not  this 
cruelty  to  animals,  for  protectors  thus  to  torture  the 
protected  ?  Where's  Bergh  ? 

On  some  roads  there  are  special  cars  for  the  bene- 
fit of  fumigators.  Towards  the  support  of  this 
extra  rolling-stock,  and  the  wear  and  tear  of  t In- 
roads, every  woman  travelling  by  these  routes  pays 
her  pro  rota  of  expenses.  She  does  not  smoke,  but 
she  suffers  in  pocket  by  such  as  do.  Every  man 
whose  bad  habits  oblige  him  to  have  extra  accommo- 
dation on  a  railway-car  should  be  obliged  to  pay  for 
it.  There  should  be  smoke-tickets  issued  to  such 
persons'.  What  railroad  company  would  run  a  spe- 
cial car  for  women  to  dip  and  snuff,  make  tea  and 
gossip  in,  without  making  them  pay  roundly  for  it  ? 
This  indirect  robbery  of  women  for  the  benefit  of 
men  is  on  the  same  principle  that  underlies  the  un- 
lawful taxation  of  women  for  the  benefit  of  their 
protectors.  They  make  helpless  women  assist  in. 
paying  for  their  indulgences. 

Men  and  brethren,  are  you  not  ashamed  of  such  a 
prostitution  of  power? 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

PROBATE   A   HIGH  COURT  OF   CHANCERY. 

Par  nobile  fratrum. 

THIS  chapter  is  almost  entirely  made  up  of  extracts 
from  u  Bleak  House."  Mr.  -Dickens  says  in  the  pref- 
ace of  this  book,  t;  Every  thing  set  forth  in  these 
pages  concerning  the  Court-  of  Chancery  is  sub- 
stantially true,  and  within  the  truth.  The  case  of 
Gridley  is  in  no  essential  altered  from  one  of  actual 
occurrence,  made  public  by  a  disinterested  person 
who  was  professionally  acquainted  with  the  whole 
of  the  monstrous  wrong  from  beginning  to  end.  At 
the  present  moment  (1853)  there  is  a  suit  before  the 
court,  which  was  commenced  nearly  twenty  years 
ago,  in  which  from  thirty  to  forty  counsel  have  been 
known  to  appear  at  one  time ;  in  which  costs  have 
been  incurred  to  the  amount  of  seventy  thousand 
pounds;  which  is  &  friendly  suit,  and  which  is  (I  am 
assured)  no  nearer  to  its  termination  now  than  when 
10  was  begun.  There  is  another  well-known  suit  in 
Chancery,  not  yet  decided,  which  was  commenced 
before  the  close  of  the  last  century,  and  in  which 
more  than  double  the  amount  of  seventy  thousand 
pounds  has  been  swallowed  up  in  costs." 

319 


320  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

"  Hard  by  Temple  Bar,  in  Lincoln's  Inn  Hall,  at 
the  very  heart  of  the  fog,  sits  the  Lord  High  Chan- 
cellor in  his  High  Court  of  Chancery.  Never  can 
there  come  fog  too  thick,  never  can  there  come 
mud  and  mire  too  deep,  to  assort  with  the  groping 
and  floundering  condition  which  this  High  Court  of 
Chan  ;ery,  most  pestilent  of  hoary  sinners,  holds  this 
day  in  the  sight  of  heaven  and  earth. 

"  On  such  an  afternoon,  if  ever,  the  Lord  High 
Chancellor  ought  to  be  sitting  here  —  as  here  he  is 

—  with  a  foggy  glory  round  his  head,  softly  fenced  in 
with  crimson  cloth  and  curtains,  addressed  by  a  Li 
advocate  with  great  whiskers,  a  little  voice,  and  an 
interminable  brief,  and  outwardly  directing  his  con- 
templation to  the  lantern  in  the  roof,  where   he  can 
see  nothing  but  fog.     On  such  an  afternoon  some 
score  of  members  of  the  High  Court  of  Chancery  bar 
ought  to  be  —  as  here  they  are  —  mistily  engaged  in 
one  of  the  ten  thousand  stages  of  an  endk-ss  cause, 
tripping  one  another  up  on  slippery  precedents,  grop- 
ing knee-deep  in  technicalities,  running  their  goat- 
hair  and  horse-hair  warded  heads  against  walls  of 
words,-  and  making  a  pretence  of  equity  with  serious 
faces  —  as  players  might.     On  such  an  afternoon  the 
various  solicitors  in  the  cause,  some  two  or  three  of 
whom   have   inherited   it   from   their   fathers,   who 
made  a  fortune  by  it,  ought  to  be  —  as  they  are  not 

—  ranged  in  a  line,  in  a  long  matted  well   (but  you 
might  look  in  vain  for  Truth  at  the  bottom  of  it), 
between  the  register's  red  table  and  the  silk  gowns, 


PROBATE  A   HIGH  COURT  OF  CHANCERY.         321 

with  bills,  cross-bills,  answers,  rejoinders,  injunc- 
tions, affidavits,  issues,  references  to  masters,  masters' 
reports,  mountains  of  costly  nonsense,  piled  before 
them.  Well  may  the  court  be  dim,  with  wasting 
candles  here  and  there ;  well  may  the  fog  hang 
heavy  in  it,  as  if  it  would  never  get  out ;  we'll  may 
the  stained-glass  windows  lose  their  color,  and  admiC 
no  light  of  day  into  the  place ;  well  may  the  unini- 
tiated from  the  streets,  who  peep  in  through  the 
glass  panes  in  the  door,  be  deterred  from  entrance 
by  its  owlish  aspect,  and  by  the  drawl  languidly 
echoing  to  the  roof  from  the  padded  dais  where  the 
Lord  High  Chancellor  looks  into  the  lantern  that 
has  no  light  in  it,  and  where  the  attendant  wigs  are 
all  stuck  in  a  fog-bank  !  This  is  the  Court  of  Chan- 
cery, which  has  its  decaying  houses  and  its  blighted 
lands  in  every  shire ;  which  has  its  worn-out  lunatic 
in  every  mad-house,  and  its  dead  in  every  church- 
yard ;  which  has  its  ruined  suitor  with  his  slipshod 
heels  and  threadjbare  dress,  borrowing  and  begging 
through  the  round  of  every  man's  acquaintance; 
which  gives  to  moneyed  might  the  means  abun- 
dantl}7  of  wearying  out  the  right ;  which  so  exhausts 
finances,  patience,  courage,  hope,  so  overthrows  the 
brain,  and  breaks  the  heart,  that  there  is  not  an 
honorable  man  among  its  practitioners  who  would 
not  give  —  who  does  not  often  give  —  the  warning, 
'  Suffer  any  wrong  that  can  be  done  you,  rather 
than  come  here.' 

"  The  Court  is  yawning  —  or  its  members,  attaches 


322  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

rather  —  this  murky  afternoon,  for  no  crumb  of  amuse- 
ment ever  falls  from  Jarndyce  £  Jamdyce  (the  cause 
in  hand),  which  was  squeezed  dry  years  and  years 
ago.  This  scarecrow  of  a  suit  has  in  course  of  time 
become  so  complicated,  that  no  man  alive  knows  what 
it  means.  Innumerable  children  have  been  born 
into  the  cause  ;  innumerable  young  people  have  mar- 
ried into  it ;  innumerable  old  people  have  died  out 
of  it.  Scores  of  people  have  deliriously  found  them- 
selves made  parties  in  Jarndyce  &  Jarndyce,  without 
knowing  how  or  why.  Whole  families  have  inherited 
legendary  hatreds  with  the  suit.  The  little  plaint  iff 
or  defendant,  who  was  promised  a  new  rocking-ln 
when  Jarndyce  &  Jarndyce  should  be  settled,  has 
grown  up,  possessed  himself  of  a  real  horse,  and 
trotted  away  into  the  other  world.  Fair  wards  of 
court  have  faded  into  mothers  and  grandmothers  ;  a 
long  procession  of  Chancellors  has  come  in  and  gone 
out;  the  legion  of  bills  in  the  suit  have  been  trans- 
formed into  mere  bills  of  mortality  ;  there  are  not 
three  Jarndyces  left  upon  the  earth  perhaps,  since 
old  Tom  Jarndyce  in  despair  blew  his  brains  out  at 
a  coffee-house  in  Chancery  Lane.  But  Jarndyce  & 
Jarndyce  still  drags  its  dreary  length  before  the 
court,  perennially  hopeless. 

"  Jarndyce  &  Jarndyce  has  passed  into  a  joke. 
That  is  the  only  good  that  has  ever  come  of  it ;  it 
has  been  death  tc  many,  but  it  is  a  joke  in  the  profes- 
sion. Every  master  in  Chancery  has  had  a  reference 
out  of  it ;  every  Chancellor  was  4  in  it,'  for  some- 


PROBATE  A  HIGH  COURT  OF  CHANCERY.         323 

body  or  other,  when  he  was  counsel  at  the  bar. 
Good  things  have  been  said  about  it  by  blue-nosed, 
bulbous-shoed  old  benchers,  in  select  port-wine 
committee  after  dinner  in  hall.  Articled  clerks 
have  been  in  the  habit  of  fleshing  their  legal  wit 
upon  it.  The  last  Lord  Chancellor  handled  it 
neatly,  when  correcting  Mr.  Blowers,  the  eminent 
silk  gown,  who  said  that  such  a  thing  might  happen 
when  the  sky  rained  potatoes :  he  observed,  '  Or 
when  we  get  through  Jarndyce  &  Jarndyce,  Mr. 
Blowers, '  —  a  pleasantry  that  particularly  tickled 
the  maces,  bags,  and  purses. 

"  How  many  people  out  of  the  suit,  Jarndyce  & 
Jarndyce  has  stretched  forth  its  unwholesome  hand 
to  spoil  and  corrupt,  would  be  a  very  wide  question. 
From  the  master,  upon  whose  impaling  files  reams 
of  dusty  warrants  in  Jarndyce  &  Jarndyce  have 
grimly  writhed  into  fantastic  shapes ;  down  to  the 
copying-clerk  in  the  Six  Clerks'  Office,  who  has 
copied  his  tens  of  thousands  of  Chancery-folio  pages 
under  that  eternal  heading,  —  no  man's  nature  has 
been  made  the  better  by  it.  In  trickeiy,  evasion, 
procrastination,  spoliation,  botheration,  under  false 
pretences  of  all  sorts,  there  are  influences  that  can 
never  come  to  good.  The  very  solicitous  boys  who 
have  kept  the  wretched  suitors  at  bay  by  protesting 
time  out  of  mind  that  Mr.  Chizzle,  Mizzle,  or  other- 
wise, was  particularly  engaged  and  had  appoint- 
ments until  dinner,  may  have  got  an  extra  moral 
twist  and  shuffle  into  themselves  out  of  Jarndyce  & 


324  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

Jarndyce.  The  receiver  in  the  cause  has  acquired  a 
goodly  sum  of  money  by  it,  but  has  acquired,  too,  a 
distrust  of  his  own  mother,  and  a  contempt  for  his 
own  kind.  Chizzle,  Mizzle,  and  otherwise  have 
lapsed  into  habits  of  vaguely  promising  them- 
selves that  they  will  look  into  that  outstanding 
matter,  and  see  what  can  be  done  for  Drizzle,  —  who 
was  not  well  used,  —  when  Jarndyce  &  Jarndyce 
shall  be  got  out  of  the  office.  Shirking  and  sharking 
in  all  their  many  varieties  have  been  sown  broad- 
cast by  the  ill-fated  cause;  and  even  those  who 
have  contemplated  its  history  from  the  outermost 
circle  of  such  evil,  have  been  insensibly  tempted  into 
a  loose  way  of  letting  bad  things  alone  to  take  their 
own  bad  course,  and  a  loose  belief,  that,  if  the  world 
go  wrong,  it  was  in  some  off-handed  manner  never 
meant  to  go  right. 

"  Thus,  in  the  midst  of  the  mud  and  at  the  heart 
of  the  fog,  sits  the  Lord  High  Chancellor  in  his  High 
Court  of  Chancery. 

"  The  farce  having  ended  for  the  day,  the  Chan- 
cellor is  about  to  bow  to  the  bar,  when  a  prisoner  is 
presented,  —  another  ruined  suitor,  who  periodically 
appears  from  Shropshire,  and  breaks  out  into  efforts 
to  address  the  Chancellor  at  the  close  of  the  day's 
business ;  and  who  can  by  no  means  be  made  to 
understand  that  the  Chancellor  is  legally  ignorant  of 
his  existence  after  making  it  desolate  for  a  quarter 
of  a  century.  The  man  from  Shropshire  ventures  a 
4  my  lord  ; '  but  the  Chancellor,  being  aware  of  the 


PROBATE  A   IJlGn   COURT  OF  CHANCERY.        325 

import  of  the  prisoner's  conglomeration,  has  dex- 
terously vanished.  Everybody  else  quickly  vanishes 
too,  and  the  empty  court  is  locked  up.  If  all  the 
injustice  it  has  committed,  and  all  the  misery  it  htv: 
caused,  could  only  be  locked  up  with  it,  and  the 
whole  burnt  away  in  a  great  funereal  pyre,  —  why,  so 
much  the  better  for  other  parties  than  the  parties 
in  Jarndyce  &  Jarndyce  !  " 

John  Jarndyce,  a  ward  in  Chancery,  and  guardian 
of  two  minor  wards  in  the  same  weary  suit,  said,  in 
speaking  of  the  hopeless  cause,  "  The  lawyers  have 
twisted  it  into  such  a  state  of  bedevilment  that  the 
original  merits  of  the  case  have  long  disappeared 
from  the  face  of  the  earth.  It's  about  a  Will,  and 
the  trusts  under  a  Will  —  or  it  was  once.  It's  about 
nothing  but  Costs  now.  We  are  always  appearing, 
and  disappearing,  and  swearing,  and  interrogating, 
and  filing,  and  cross-filing,  and  arguing,  and  sealing, 
and  motioning,  and  referring,  and  reporting,  and  re- 
volving about  the  Lord  High  Chancellor  and  all  his 
satellites,  and  equitably  waltzing  ourselves  off  to 
dusty  death,  about  Costs.  That's  the  great  question. 
All  the  rest,  by  some  extraordinary  means,  has  melted 
away.  A  certain  Jarndyce,  in  an  evil  hour,  made  a 
great  fortune,  and  made  a  great  Will.  In  the  question 
how  the  trusts  under  the  Will  are  to  be  adminis- 
tered, the  fortune  left  by  the  Will  is  squandered 
away;  the  legatees  under  the  Will  are  reduced  to 
such  a  miserable  condition  that  they  would  be  suffi- 
ciently punished,  if  they  had  committed  an  enor- 


326  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

mous  crimvi  in  having  money  left  them  ;  and  ihe 
Will  itself  is  made  a  dead  letter.  All  through  the 
deplorable  cause,  every  thing  that  everybody  in  it, 
except  one  man,  knows  already,  is  referred  to  that 
only  one  man  who  don't  know  it,  to  find  out ;  all 
through  the  deplorable  cause,  everybody  must  have 
copies,  over  and  over  again,  of  every  thing  that  has 
accumulated  about  it  in  the  way  of  cartloads  of 
papers  (or  must  pay  for  them  without  having  them, 
which  is  the  usual  course,  for  nobody  wants  them), 
and  must  go  down  the  middle  and  up  again,  through 
such  an  infernal  contra-dance  of  costs  and  fees,  and 
nonsense,  and  corruption,  as  was  never  dreamed  of 
in  the  wildest  visions  of  a  witch's  sabbath.  Equity 
sends  questions  to  Law,  Law  sends  questions  back  to 
Equity ;  Law  finds  it  can't  do  this,  Equity  finds  it 
can't  do  that ;  neither  can  so  much  as  say  it  can't  do 
any  thing,  without  this  solicitor's  instructing  and 
this  counsel  appearing  for  A,  and  that  solicitor  in- 
structing and  that  counsel  appearing  for  B,  and  so 
on  through  the  whole  alphabet.  Through  years  and 
years,  and  lives  and  lives,  every  thing  goes  on,  con- 
stantly beginning  over  and  over  again,  and  nothing 
ever  ends.  And  we  can't  get  out  of  the  suit  on  any 
terms ;  for  we  are  made  parties  to  it,  and  must  be 
parties  to  it,  whether  we  like  it  or  not.  But  it  won't 
do  to  think  of  it.  When  my  uncle,  poor  Tom  Jarn- 
dyce,  began  to  think  of  it,  it  was  the  beginning  of 
the  end. 

"  I  was  his  heir,  and  this  was  his  house,  Bleak 


PROBATE  A   HIGH  COURT  OF  CHANCERY.        327 

Hoiise.  When  I  came  here,  it  was  bleak  indeed. 
He  had  left  the  signs  of  his  misery  upon  it.  Here  he 
lived  shut  up,  day  and  night  poring  over  the  wicked 
heaps  of  papers  in  the  suit,  and  hoping  against  hope 
to  disentangle  it  from  its  mystification,  and  bring  it  to 
a  close.  In  the  mean  time  the  place  became  dilapi- 
dated, the  wind  whistled  through  the  cracked  walls, 
the  rain  fell  through  the  broken  roof,  the  weeds 
choked  the  passage  to  the  rotting  doors.  When  I 
brought  what  remained  of  him  home  here,  the  brains 
seemed  to  me  to  have  been  blown  out  of  the  house 
too,  it  was  so  shattered  and  ruined. 

"  There  is  in  the  city  of  London,  some  property  of 
ours  —  I  say  property  of  ours,  meaning  of  the  suits, 
but  I  ought  to  call  it  the  property  of  Costs ;  for  Costs 
is  the  only  power  on  earth  that  will  ever  get  any 
thing  out  of  it  now,  or  will  ever  know  it  for  any 
thing  but  an  eyesore  and  a  heartsore.  It  is  a  street 
of  perishing,  blind  houses,  with  their  eyes  stoned 
out ;  without  a  pane  of  glass,  without  so  much  as  a 
window-frame  ;  with  the  bare  blank  shutters  tumbling 
from  their  hinges,  and  falling  asunder  ;  the  iron  rails 
peeling  away  in  flakes  of  rust,  the  chimneys  sinking 
in,  the  stone  steps  to  every  door  (and  every  door 
might  be  Death's  door)  turning  stagnant  green,  the 
very  crutches  on  which  the  ruins  are  propped  decay- 
ing. Although  Bleak  House  was  not  in  Chancery, 
its  master  was ;  and  it  was  stamped  with  the  same 
seal.  Thest.  are  the  Great  Seal's  impressions  all  over 
England,  —  and  the  children  know  them. 


328  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

"  Here's  my  ward  Rick,  a  fine  young  fellow,  full 
of  promise.  He  must  have  a  profession.  Kenge  and 
Carboy  will  have  something  to  say  about  it ;  Master 
Somebody  —  a  sort  of  ridiculous  sexton,  digging 
graves  for  the  merits  of  causes  in  a  back  room  at  the 
end  of  Quality  Court,  Chancery  Lane  —  will  have 
something  to  say  about  it;  counsel  will  have  some- 
thing to  say  about  it ;  the  Chancellor  will  have  some- 
thing to  say  about  it ;  the  Satellites  will  have 
something  to  say  about  it ;  they  will  have  to  be 
handsomely  feed  all  round,  about  it ;  the  whole  thing 
will  be  vastly  ceremonious,  wordy,  unsatisfactory, 
and  expensive;  and  I  call  it,  in  general,  Wiglomera- 
tion.  How  mankind  ever  come  to  be  afflicted  with 
Wiglomeration,  or  for  whose  sins  these  young  people, 
Rick  and  Ada,  wards  in  Jarndyce  &  Jarndyce,  ever 
fell  into  a  pit  of  it,  I  don't  know :  so  it  is." 

"  By  my  soul,  Jarndyce,"  said  Mr.  Boythorn,  "  Tf 
I  were  in  your  place,  I  would  seize  every  Master  in 
Chancery  by  the  throat  to-morrow  morning,  and 
shake  him  until  his  money  rolled  out  of  his  pock 
and  his  bones  rattled  in  his  skin.  I  would  have  a 
settlement  out  of  somebody,  by  fair  means  or  l>v 
foul.  If  you  would  empower  me  to  do  it,  I  would 
do  it  for  you  with  the  greatest  satisfaction.  There 
never  was  such  an  infernal  caldron  as  that  chancery, 
on  the  face  of  the  earth  !  Nothing  but  a  mine  below 
it  on  a  busy  day  in  term-time,  with  all  its  records, 
rules,  and  precedents  collected  in  it,  and  every  fniu-- 
tionary  belonging  to  it  also,  high  and  low,  upward  and 


PROBATE  A   HIGH  COURT  OF  CHANCERY.         329 

downward,  from  its  son  the  Accountant-Gem  ral  to 
its  father  the  Devil,  and  the  whole  blown  to  atoms 
with  ten  thousand  hundred-weight  of  gunpowder, 
could  reform  it  in  the  least." 

While  visiting  some  orphan  children  in  miserable 
lodgings,  Mr.  Jarndyce  and  his  wards  met  for  the 
first  time  "  the  man  from  Shropshire,  —  a  tall  sallow 
man,  with  a  careworn  head,  on  which  but  little  hair 
remained,  a  deeply  lined  face,  and  prominent  eyes. 
He  had  a  combative  look,  and  a  chafing  irritable 
manner,  which  associated  with  his  figure  —  still 
large  and  powerful,  though  evidentty  in  its  decline 
—  was  rather  alarming.  He  entered  the  room  where 
they  were  sitting,  evidently  in  great  displeasure  at 
the  sight  of  strangers,  and  said,  '  I  don't  know  what 
you  may  be  doing  here,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  but 
you'll  excuse  my  coming  in.  I  don't  come  in  to 
stare  about  me.'  4  No  one,  surely,  would  come 
here  to  stare  about  him,'  said  Mr.  Jarndyce  mildly. 

"  4  May  be  so,  sir :  may  be  so,'  returned  Gridley 
almost  fiercety.  4 1  don't  want  to  argue  with  ladies 
and  gentlemen.  I've  had  enough  of  arguing  to  last 
one  man  his  lifetime.' 

44 '  You  have  sufficient  reason,  I  dare  say,'  observed 
Mr.  Jarndyce,  l  for  being  chafed  and  irritated.' 

"  4  Tli ere   again  ! '    exclaimed   the  man,  becoming 
violently  angry.      4  I'm   of   a   quarrelsome   temper. 
I'm  irascible.     I'm  not  polite  ! ' 
'  "  4  Not  very,  I  think.' 

"  i  Sir,'  said  Gridley,  going  up  to  him  as  if  he 


330  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

meant  to  strike  him,  t  do  you   know  any  thing   of 
Courts  of  Equity  ?  ' 

"  '  Perhaps  I  do,  to  my  sorrow.' 

"  4  To  your  sorrow  ? '  said  the  man,  pausing  in  his 
wrath.  '  If  so,  I  beg  your  pardon.  I'm  not  polite, 
I  know.  I  beg  your  pardon  !  Sir/  with  renewed 
violence,  '  I  have  been  dragged  for  five  and  twenty 
years  over  burning  iron,  and  I  have  lost  the  habit  of 
treading  upon  velvet.  Go  into  the  Court  of  Chan- 
cery yonder,  and  ask  what  is  one  of  the  standing 
jokes  that  brighten  up  their  business  sometimes,  and 
they  will  tell  you  that  the  best  joke  they  hav<- 
the  man  from  Shropshire.  I,'  he  said,  beating  one 
hand  on  the  other  passionately,  '  am  the  man  from 
Shropshire.' 

"  '  I  believe  I  and  my  family  have  also  had  the 
honor  of  furnishing  some  entertainment  in  the  same 
grave  place,'  said  Mr.  Jarndyce  composedly.  '  You 
may  have  heard  my  name,  —  Jarndyce.' 

"  '  Mr.  Jarndyce,'  said  Gridley,  l  you  bear  your 
wrong  more  quietly  than  I  can  bear  mine.  More 
than  that,  I  tell  you,  and  I  tell  this  young  gentle- 
man and  these  young  ladies,  if  they  are  friends  of 
yours,  that  if  I  took  my  wrongs  in  any  other  way, 
I  should  be  driven  mad!  It  is  only  by  resenting 
them,  and  by  revenging  them  in  my  mind,  and  by 
angrily  demanding  the  justice  I  never  get,  that  I  am 
able  to  keep  my  wits  together.  It  is  only  that,'  he 
said,  speaking  in  a  homely,  rustic  way,  and  with 
great  vehemence. 


PROBATE  A  HIGH  COURT  OF  CHANCERY.        331 

"'  You  may  tell  me  that  I  over-excite  myself.  I 
answer  that's  in  my  nature  to  do  it  under  wrong, 
and  I  must  do  it.  There's  nothing  between  doing 
it,  and  sinking  into  the  smiling  state  of  -the  poor 
little  madwoman  that  haunts  the  court.  If  I  were 
once  to  sit  down  under  it,  I  should  become  imbecile.' 

4'  The  passion  and  heat  in  whicli  he  was,  and  the 
manner  in  which  his  face  worked,  and  the  violent 
gestures  with  which  he  accompanied  what  he  said, 
were  most  painful  to  see. 

"  '  Mr.  Jarndyce,'  he  continued,  '  consider  my 
case.  As  true  as  there  is  a  heaven  above  us,  this  is 
my  case.  I  am  one  of  two  brothers.  My  father  (a 
farmer)  made  a  will,  and  left  his  farm  and  stock, 
and  so  forth,  to  my  mother  for  her  life.  After  my 
mother's  death,  all  was  to  come  to  me  except  a  leg- 
acy of  three  hundred  pounds  that  I  was  then  to  pay 
my  brother.  My  mother  died.  My  brother,  some 
time  afterwards,  claimed  his  legacy.  I  and  some  of 
my  relations  said  that  he  had  had  a  part  of  it  already 
in  board  and  lodging,  and  some  other  things.  Now 
mind  !  That  was  the  question,  and  nothing  else. 
No  one  disputed  the  will-;  no  one  disputed  any 
thing,  but  whether  part  of  that  three  hundred 
pounds  had  been  already  paid  or  not.  To  settle  that 
question,  my  brother  filing  a  bill,  I  was  obliged  to 
go  into  this  accursed  Chancery.  I  was  forced  there, 
because  the  law  forced  me,  and  would  let  me  go  no- 
where else.  Seventeen  people  were  made  defendants 
to  that  simple  suit !  It  first  came  on  after  two  years. 


332  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

It  was  then  stopped  for  another  two  years,  while  the 
master  (may  his  head  rot  off!)  inquired  whether  I 
was  my  father's  son  —  about  which  there  was  no 
dispute  whatever  with  any  mortal  creature.  He  then 
found  out  that  there  were  not  defendants  enough,  — 
remember,  there  were  only  seventeen  as  yet,  —  but 
that  we  must  have  another  who  had  been  left  out,  and 
must  begin  all  over  again.  The  costs  at  that  time  — 
before  the  thing  was  begun  —  were  three  times  the 
legacy.  My  brother  would  have  given  up  the  leg- 
acy, and  joyful,  to  escape  more  costs.  My  whole 
estate  left  to  me  in  that  will  of  my  father's  lias  ^one 
in  costs.  The  suit,  still  undecided,  has  fallen  into 
rack  and  ruin  and  despair,  with  every  thing  else  — 
and  here  I  stand  this  day.  Now,  Mr.  Jarndyce,  in 
your  suit  there  are  thousands  and  thousands  invohvd 
where  in  mine  there  are  hundreds.  Is  mine  less 
hard  to  bear,  or  is  it  harder  to  bear,  when  my  whole 
living  was  in  it,  and  has  been  thus  shamefully 
sucked  away  ? ' 

"  Mr.  Jarndyce  said  that  he  condoled  with  him 
with  all  his  heart,  and  that  he  set  up  no  monopoly 
himself  in  being  unjustly  treated  by  this  monstrous 
system. 

"  4  There  again  ! '  said  Gridley,  with  no  diminution 
of  his  rage.  l  The  system  !  I  am  told  on  all  hands, 
it's  the  system.  I  mustn't  look  to  individuals.  It's 
the  system.  I  mustn't  go  into  court,  and  say,  "  My 
Lord,  I  beg  to  know  this  from  you  :  is  this  right,  or 
wrong  ?  Have  you  the  face  to  tell  me  I  have  re- 


PROBATE  A  HIGH  COURT  OF  CHANCERY.        333 

ceived  justice,  and  therefore  am  dismissed  ?  "  My 
Lord  knows  nothing  of  it.  He  sits  there  to  adminis- 
ter the  system.  I  mustn't  go  to  Mr.  Tulkinghorn, 
the  solicitor  in  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  and  say  to  him, 
when  he  makes  me  furious  by  being  so  cool  and  sat- 
isfied, —  as  they  all  do,  for  I  know  they  gain  by  it 
while  I  lose,  don't  I  ?  —  I  mustn't  say  to  him,  "  I  will 
have  something  out  of  some  one  for  my  ruin,  by  fair 
means  or  foul !  "  lie  is  not  responsible.  It's  the  sys- 
tem. But,  if  I  do  no  violence  to  any  of  them  here, 
—  I  may  !  I  don't  know  what  may  happen  if  I  am 
curried  beyond  myself  at  last.  I  will  accuse  the 
INDIVIDUAL  WORKERS  of  that  system  against  me, 
face  to  face,  before  the  great  eternal  bar.' 

"His  passion  was   fearful.     No   one    could   have 
believed  in  such  rage  without  seeing  it. 

"  '  I  have  done,'  he  said,  sitting  down,  and  wiping, 
his  face.  4  Mr.  Jarndyce,  I  have  done.  I'm  violent, 
I  know.  I  ought  to  know  it.  I  have  been  in  prison 
for  contempt  of  court.  I  have  been  in  this  trouble, 
and  that  trouble,  and  shall  be  again.  I'm  the  man 
from  Shropshire,  and  sometimes  go  beyond  amusing 
them  —  though  they  have  found  it  amusing,  too,  tc 
see  me  committed  into  custody,  and  all  that.  It 
would  be  better  for  me,  they  tell  me,  if  I  restrained 
myself.  I  tell  them  that  if  I  did  restrain  myself,  I 
should  become  imbecile.  I  was  a  good-enough  tem- 
pered man  once,  I  believe.  People  in  my  part  of  the 
country  say  they  remember  me  so ;  but  now  I  must 
have  this  vent  under  my  sense  of  injury,  or  nothing 


334  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

could  hold  my  wits  together.  "  It  would  lie  far  bet- 
ter for  you,  Mr.  Gridley,"  the  Lord  Chancellor  told 
me  last  week,  "not  to  waste  your  time  here,  and  to 
stay  usefully  employed  down  in  Shropshire." 
Lord,  my  Lord,  I  know  it  would,"  said  I  to  him  , 
"  and  it  would  have  been  far  better  for  me  never  to 
have  heard  the  name  of  your  high  office  ;  but,  unhap- 
pily for  me,  I  can't  undo  the  past,  and  the  past  drives 
me  here! "  Besides,'  he  added,  breaking  fiercely  out, 
4  I'll  shame  them.'  (As  if  such  a  thing  were  pos- 
sible !)  4  If  I  knew  when  I  was  going  to  die,  and 
could  be  carried  there,  and  had  a  voice  to  speak 
with,  I  would  die  there  saying,  "  You  have  brought 
me  here,  and  sent  me  from  here,  many  and  many  a 
time.  Now  send  me  out  feet  foremost !  " 

Here  is  a  bird's-eye  view  of  Chancery  from  a 
woman's  (Miss  Esther  Summerson)  standpoint.  She 
says,  — 

"  When  we  came  to  the  Court,  there  was  the  Lord 
High  Chancellor  sitting,  in  great  state  and  gra\ 
on  the  bench;  with  the  mace  and  seals  on  a  red  table 
before  him,  and  an  immense  flat  nosegay,  like  a  little 
garden,  which  scented  the  whole  Court.  Below  the 
table,  again,  was  a  long  row  of  solicitors,  with  bun- 
dles of  papers  on  the  matting  at  their  feet ;  and  then 
there  were  the  gentlemen  of  the  bar  in  wigs  and 
gowns,  some  awake  .and  some  asleep,  and  one  talking, 
and  nobody  paying  much  attention  to  what  he  said. 
The  Lord  Chancellor  leaned  back  in  his  very  < 
chair,  with  his  elbows  on  the  cushioned  arms,  and  his 


PROBATE  A  HIGH  COURT  OF  CHANCERY          335 

forehead  resting  on  his  hand ;  some  of  those  who 
were  present  dozed,  some  read  the  newspapers,  some 
walked  about,  or  whispered  in  groups ;  all  seemed 
perfectly  at  their  ease,  by  no  means  in  a  hurry,  very 
unconcerned,  and  extremely  comfortable. 

"  To  see  every  thing  going  on  so  smoothly,  and  tc 
think  of  the  roughness  of  the  suitors'  lives  and 
deaths ;  to  see  all  that  full  dress  and  ceremony,  and 
to  think  of  the  waste,  and  want,  and  beggared  misery 
it  represented ;  to  consider,  that,  while  the  sickness 
of  hope  deferred  was  raging  in  so  many  hearts,  this 
polite  show  went  calmly  on  from  day  to  day,  and  year 
to  year,  in  such  good  order  and  composure  ;  to  behold 
the  Lord  Chancellor,  and  the  whole  array  of  practi- 
tioners under  him,  looking  at  one  another  and  at  the 
spectators,  as  if  nobody  had  ever  heard  that  all  over 
England  the  name  in  which  they  were  assembled  was 
a  bitter  jest ;  was  held  in  universal  horror,  contempt, 
and  indignation  "  (thus  would  the  Probate  Court  in 
the  United  States  be  held  if  people  understood  half 
its  rascalities,  its  shameless  crimes,  and  cruel  perse- 
cutions) ;  "  was  known  for  something  so  flagrant  and 
bad  that  little  short  of  a  miracle  could  bring  any 
good  out  of  it  to  any  one  who  had  no  experience  of 
it,  - —  that  it  was  at  first  incredible,  and  I  could  not 
comprehend  it.  I  sat  where  Richard  put  me,  and 
tried  to  listen  and  look  about  me  ;  but  there  seemed 
to  be  no  reality  in  the  whole  scene,  except  poor  little 
Miss  Flite,  the  madwoman,  standing  on  a  bench 
and  nodding  at  it. 


336  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

» 

"  When  we  had  been  there  half  an  hour  or  so,  the 
case  in  progress  —  if  I  may  use  a  phrase  so  ridiculous 
in  such  a  connection  —  seemed  to  die  out  of  its  own 
vapidity,  without  coming  or  being  by  anybody 
expected  to  come  to  any  result.  The  Lord  Chancel- 
lor then  threw  down  a  bundle  of  papers  from  his 
desk  to  the  gentleman  below  him,  and  somebody 
said  '  JARNDYCE  &  JARNDYCE.'  Upon  this  there 
was  a  buzz,  and  a  laugh,  and  a  general  withdrawal 
of  the  by-standers,  and  a  bringing  in  of  great  heaps 
and  piles  and  bags  and  bagsful  of  papers. 

"I  think  it  came  on  'for  further  directions,'  about 
some  bill  of  costs,  to  the  best  of  my  understanding, 
which  was  confused  enough.  I  counted  twenty- 
three  gentlemen  in  wigs,  who  said  they  were  '  in  it  ;  ' 
and  none  of  them  appeared  to  understand  it  much 
better  than  I  did.  They  chatted  about  it  with  the 
Lord  Chancellor,  and  contradicted  and  explained 
among  themselves,  and  some  of  them  said  it  was  this 
way,  and  some  of  them  said  it  was  that  way,  and 
some  of  them  jocosely  proposed  to  read  huge  volumes 
of  affidavits,  and  there  was  more  buzzing  and  laugh- 
ing, and  everybody  concerned  was  in  a  state  of  idle 
entertainment,  and  nothing  could  be  made  of  it  bv 
anybody.  After  an  hour  or  so  of  this,  and  a  good 
many  speeches  being  begun  and  cut  short,  it  i 
4  referred  back  for  the  present ,'  and  the  papers  were 
bundled  up  again,  before  the  clerks  had  finished 
bringing  them  in. 

"  I  glanced  at  Richard,  at  the  termination  of  these 


PROBATE  A   HIGH  COURT  OF  CHANCERY.         337 

hopeless  proceedings,  and  was  shocked  to  see  the 
worn  look  of  his  handsome  face." 

Let  us  turn  from  cause  to  result,  as  seen  and 
recorded  by  Esther  Summerson :  — 

"  When  we  arrived  at  the  shooting-gallery,  we  saw 
lying  upon  a  plain  canvas-covered  sofa,  the  man  from 
Shropshire  —  dressed  much  as  we  had  seen  him  last, 
but  so  changed  that  at  first  I  recognized  no  likeness 
in  his  colorless  face  to  what  I  recollected.  He  had 
been  still  writing  in  his  hiding-place,  and  still  dwell- 
ing on  his  grievances,  hour  after  hour.  A  table  and 
some  shelves  were  covered  with  manuscript  papers, 
and  with  worn  pens,  and  a  medley  of  such  tokens. 
Touchingly  and  awfully  drawn  together,  he  and  the 
little  madwoman  were  side  by  side,  and,  as  it  were, 
alone.  She  sat  on  a  chair  holding  his  hand.  His 
voice  had  faded,  with  the  old  expression  of  his  face, 
with  his  strength,  with  his  anger,  with  his  resistance 
to  the  wrongs  that  had  at  last  subdued  him.  The 
faintest  shadow  of  an  object  full  of  form  and  color 
is  such  a  picture  of  it,  as  he  was  of  the  man  from 
Shropshire  whom  we  had  spoken  with  before. 

"He  inclined  his  head  to  Richard  and  me,  and 
spoke  to  my  Guardian  :  4  Mr.  Jarndyce,  it  is  very  kind 
of  you  to  come  to  see  me.  I'm  not  long  to  be  seen, 
I  think.  I'm  very  glad  to  take  your  hand,  sir.  You 
are  a  good  man,  superior  to  injustice,  and  God  knows 
I  honor  you.' 

"  They  shook  hands  earnestly,  my  Guardian  saying 
some  words  of  comfort  to  him. 


338  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

"  '  It  may  seem  strange  to  you,  sir,'  returned  Gi id- 
ley  :  '  I  should  not  have  liked  to  see  you,  if  this  had 
been  the  first  time  of  our  meeting.  But,  you  know, 
I  made  a  fight  for  it;  you  know  I  stood  up  with  my 
single  hand  against  them  all ;  you  know  I  told  them 
the  truth  to  the  last,  and  told  them  what  they  were, 
and  what  they  had  done  to  me  :  so  I  don't  mind  you 
seeing  me  this  wreck.' 

" 4  You  have  been  courageous  with  them,  many  and 
many  a  time,'  observed  my  Guardian. 

" 4  Sir,  I  have  been,'  with  a  faint  smile.  4 1  told 
you  what  would  come  of  it,  when  I  ceased  to  be  so ; 
and,  see  here  !  look  at  us  —  look  at  us  ! '  He  drew 
the  hand  Miss  Flite  held  through  her  arm,  and 
brought  her  something  nearer  him.  '  This  ends  it. 
Of  all  my  old  associates,  of  all  my  old  pursuits  and 
Lopes,  of  all  the  living  and  the  dead  world,  this  one 
poor  soul  alone  comes  natural  to  me,  and  I  am  fit  for. 
There  is  a  tie  of  many  suffering  years  between  us 
two,  and  it  is  the  only  tie  I  ever  had  on  earth  that 
Chancery  has  not  broken.' 

"  4  Accept  my  blessing^  Gridley,'  said  Miss  Elite-  in 
tears.  4  Accept  my  blessing ! ' 

"  '  I  thought  boastfully  that  they  could  never  break 
my  heart,  Mr.  Jarndyce.  I  was  resolved  that  they 
should  not.  I  did  believe  that  I  could,  and  would, 
charge  them  with  being  the  mockery  they  are,  until 
I  died  of  some  bodily  disorder.  But  I  am  worn  out. 
How  long  I  have  been  wearing  out,  I  don't  know  ;  I 
seem  to  break  down  in  an  hour.  I  hope  they  may 


PROBATE  A  HIGH  COURT  OF  CHANCERY.        339 

never  come  to  hear  of  it.  I  hope  everybody  here 
will  lead  them  to  believe  that  I  died  defying  them 
consistently  and  perseveringly,  as  I  did  so  many 
years.' 

"  The  roof  rang  with  a  scream  from  Miss  Flite, 
which  still  rings  in  my  ears,  as  he  ceased  speaking. 

"  '  Oh,  no,  Gridley ! '  she  cried,  as  he  fell  heavily 
and  calmly  back  from  before  her,  '  not  without  my 
blessing,  after  so  many  years  ! ' 

"  The  sun  was  down,  the  light  had  gradually 
stolen  from  the  roof,  and  the  shadow  had  crept 
upward.  But  to  me  the  shadow  of  that  pair,  one 
living  and  one  dead,  fell  heavier  across  Richard's 
path  than  the  darkness  of  the  darkest  night.  I 
thought  of  him  and  the  beautiful  girl  whose  destiny 
was  locked  in  his,  as  they  were  the  first  time.  I  saw 
them,  —  he  so  handsome  and  joyous,  she  with  the 
firelight  dancing  through  her  golden  hair.  Ah  !  how 
changed  is  that  bright  vision ! 

"  I  visited  them  every  day  now  in  their  little  dark 
corner  in  Symond's  Inn.  On  these  occasions  I  fre- 
quently found  Richard  absent ;  at  other  times  writ- 
ing, or  reading  papers  in  the  Cause.  Sometimes  I 
would  come  upon  him  lingering  at  the  door  of  Mr. 
Vholes's  office,  —  a  man  so  slow,  so  bloodless  and 
gaunt,  I  felt  whenever  I  saw  them  together  that 
Richard  was  wasting  away  beneath  the  eyes  of  this 
adviser,  and  that  there  was  something  of  the  vampire 
in  him.  We  sat  face  to  face  one  day  at  dinner,  and  I 
had  an  opportunity  of  observing  Richard  anxiously, 


340  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

I  was  not  disturbed  by  Mr.  Vholes  (who  took  off  his 
gloves  to  dine),  though  he  sat  opposite  to  me  at  the 
small  table ;  for  I  doubt,  if  looking  up  at  all,  he  once 
removed  his  eyes  from  his  client's  face.  I  found  Rich- 
ard thin  and  languid,  slovenly  in  his  dress,  abstracted 
in  his  manner,  forcing  his  spirits  now  and  then,  and 
at  other  intervals  relapsing  into  a  dull  thoughtf  ulness. 
About  his  large  bright  eyes  that  used  to  be  so  merry 
there  was  a  wanness  and  a  restlessness  that  changed 
them  altogether.  His  lips  were  dry,  and  his  finger- 
nails were  all  bitten  away.  I  cannot  use  the  expres- 
sion that  he  looked  old.  There  is  a  ruin  of  youth 
which  is  not  like  age ;  and  into  such  a  ruin  Richard's 
youth  and  youthful  beauty  had  all  fallen  away.  He 
haunted  the  Court  day  after  day  ;  listlessly  sat  there 
the  whole  day  long,  when  he  knew  there  was  no 
remote  chance  of  his  suit  being  mentioned ;  and 
became  one  of  the  stock  sights  of  the  place.  I 
wonder  whether  any  of  the  gentlemen  remembered 
him  as  he  was  when  he  first  went  there." 

The  curtain  rises  on  the  last  scene,  the  last  act,  in 
this  sad  drama,  this  mocking  farce.  "  When  we 
came  to  Westminster  Hall  we  found  that  the  day's 
business  was  begun.  Worse  than  that,  we  found 
such  an  unusual  crowd  in  the  Court  of  Chancery 
that  it  was  full  to  the  door,  and  we  could  neither  see 
nor  hear  what  was  passing  within.  It  appeared  to 
be  something  droll,  for  occasionally  there  was  a 
laugh,  and  a  cry  of  ''Silence!'  It  appeared  to  'be 
something  interesting,  for  every  one  was  pushing 


PROBATE  A   FlfGff   COURT  OF  CHANCERY.         341 

and  striving  to  get  nearer.  It  appeared  to  be  some* 
thing  that  made  the  professional  gentlemen  very 
merry ;  for  there  were  several  young  counsellors  in 
wigs  and  whiskers  on  the  outside  of  the  crowd,  and 
when  one  of  them  told  the  others  about  it,  they  put 
their  hands  in  their  pockets,  and  quite  doubled  them- 
selves up  with  laughter,  and  went  stamping  about 
the  pavement  of  the  hall. 

44  We  asked  a  gentleman  by  us,  if  he  knew  what 
case  was  on  ?  He  replied,  4  Jarndyce  g  JarndyccC 
We  asked  him  if  he  knew  what  was  doing  'in  it? 
He  said,  really,  no,  he  did  not,  nobody  ever  did ;  but, 
as  well  as  he  could  make  out,  it  was  over.  Over  for 
the  day  ?  we  asked  him.  '  No,'  he  made  answer : 
4  over  for  good.' 

"  Over  for  good  !  When  we  heard  this  unaccount- 
able answer  we  looked  at  one  another,  quite  lost  in 
amazement.  Could  it  be  possible  that  the  Will  had 
set  things  right  at  last,  and  that  Richard  and  Ada 
were  going  to  be  rich  ?  it  seemed  too  good  to  be 
true.  Alas,  it  was  ! 

44  Our  suspense  was  short ;  for  a  break-up  took 
place  in  the  crowd,  and  the  people  came  streaming 
out,  looking  flushed  and  hot,  and  bringing  a  quantity 
of  bad  air  with  them.  Still  they, were  all  exceed- 
ingly amused,  and  were  more  like  people  coming 
out  from  a  farce  or  a  juggler  than  from  a  court  of 
justice.  Presently  great  bundles  of  papers  began  to 
be  carried  out,  —  bundles  in  bags,  bundles  too  large 
to  be  got  into  bags,  immense  masses  of  papers  of  all 


342  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

shapes  and  no  shapes,  which  the  bearers  sUggered 
under,  and  threw  down  for  the  time  being,  anyhow, 
on  the  hall  pavement,  while  they  went  back  to 
bring  out  more.  Even  these  clerks  were  laughing. 
We  glanced  at  these  papers,  and,  seeing  Jarndyce 
&  Jarndyce  everywhere,  asked  an  official-looking 
person  who  was  standing  in  the  midst  of  them, 
whether  the  case  was  over.  '  Yes,'  he  said  ;  4  it  was 
all  up  with  at  last,'  —  and  burst  out  laughing  too. 

"  At  this  juncture  we  perceived  Mr.  Kenge  com- 
ing out  of  court  with  an  affable  dignity  upon  him, 
listening  to  Mr.  Vholes,  who  was  deferential,  and 
carried  his  own  bag.  Mr.  Vholes  was  the  first  to 
see  us. 

"  4  Here  is  Miss  Summerson,  sir,'  he  said,  '  and  Mr. 
Allan  Woodcourt.' 

"  4  Mr.  Kenge,'  said  Allan,  l  do  I  understand  that 
the  whole  estate  is  found  to  have  been  absorbed  in 
costs  ? ' 

" '  Hem !  I  believe  so,'  replied  Mr.  Kenge.  *  But 
you  must  reflect,  Mr.  Woodcourt,  that  on  the  numer- 
ous difficulties,  contingencies,  masterly  fictions,  and 
forms  of  procedure  in  this  great  cause,  there  has 
been  expended  study,  ability,  eloquence,  knowledge, 
intellect,  Mr.  Woodcourt,  high  intellect.  For  many 
years  the  —  a  —  I  would  say,  the  flower  of  the  Bar, 
and  the  — a  —  I  would  presume  to  add,  the  matured 
autumnal  fruits  of  the  Woolsack,  have  been  lavished 
upon  Jarndyce  &  Jarndyce.  If  the  public  have  the 
benefit,  and  if  the  country  have  the  adornment 


PROBATE  A   HIGH  COURT  OF  CHANCERY.         343 

of  this  great  Grasp,  it  must  be  paid  for,  in  money  or 
money's  worth,  sir.' 

"  4  In  case  you  should  be  wanting  Mr.  C ,  sir,' 

said  Mr.  Vholes,  '  you'll  find  him  in  court.  I  left 
him  there  resting  himself  a  little.  Good-day,  sir. 
Good-day,  Miss  Summerson.'  As  he  gave  me  that 
slowly  devouring  look  of  his,  while  twisting  up  the 
strings  of  his  bag,  he  gave  one  gasp  as  if  he  had 
swallowed  the  last  morsel  of  his  client,  and  his 
black,  buttoned-up,  unwholesome  figure  glided  away 
to  the  low  door  at  the  end  of  the  hall. 

"  Later  in  the  day,  when  the  fog  hung  like  a  pall 
over  Chancery  Lane  and  Symond's  Inn,  we  gather  in 
the  room  where  lay  the  wreck  of  what  had  once 
been  the  light-hearted  Richard  Carstone.  Allan 
had  found  him  sitting  in  a  corner  of  the  court,  like 
a  stone  figure.  On  being  roused,  he  had  broken 
away,  and  made  as  if  he  would  have  spoken  in  a 
fierce  voice  to  the  judge.  He  was  stopped  by  his 
mouth  being  full  of  blood,  and  Allan  had  brought 
him  home. 

"  4  When  shall  I  go  from  this  place  to  the  pleasant 
country  where  the  old  times  are,  where  I -shall  have 
strength  to  tell  what  Ada  has  been  to  me,  where  I 
shall  be  able  to  recall  my  many  faults  and  blind- 
nesses, where  I  shall  prepare  myself  to  be  a  guide  to 
my  unborn  child  ?  '  said  Richard.  4  When  shall  I 
go?' 

"  *  Dear  Rick,  when  you  are  strong  enough,'  re 
turned  my  Guardian. 


344  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

"  « Ada,  my  darling ! ' 

"  He  sought  to  raise  himself  a  little.  Allan 
raised  him  so  that  she  could  hold  him  on  her  bosom, 
which  was  what  lie  wanted. 

" '  I  have  done  you  many  wrongs,  my  own.  I 
have  fallen  like  a  poor  stray  shadow  on  your  way. 
I  have  married  you  to  poverty  and  trouble  ;  I  have 
scattered  your  means  to  the  winds.  You  will  for- 
give me  all  this,  my  Ada,  before  I  begin  the  world?  ' 

"  A  smile  irradiated  his  countenance  as  she  bent 
to  kiss  him.  He  slowly  laid  his  face  down  upon  her 
bosom,  drew  his  arms  closer  round  her  neck,  and 
with  one  parting  sob  began  the  world  —  not  this 
world,  oh,  not  this  !  the  world  that  sets  this  right." 

Push  back  the  dark  locks  from  the  white  temples 
—  they  will  never  ache  again ;  fold  the  hands  over 
the  still  heart  —  it  will  never  break  again ;  close 
gently  the  dull  eyes  —  they  will  never  weep  again. 
All  is  finished !  Ring  down  the  curtain  ! 

I  have  collected  the  facts  in  this  chapter  to  prove 
that  I  am  not  the  only  one  who  has  used  u  strong 
language,"  and  rebelled  against  a  corrupt  system, 
and  the  corrupt  workers  in  a  corrupt  system. 
Would  that  a  hand  as  powerful  as  the  illustrious 
dead's,  guided  by  divine  inspiration,  might  brand 
upon  the  hearts  of  lawgivers,  with  a  pen  of  fire,  the 
black  wrong,  the  cruel  injustice,  the  deep  shame,  of 
this  frightful  system  of  robbing  the  widows  and 
plundering  the  orphais  of  this  our  land  to  satiate 
the  greed  of  man ! 


PROBATE  A  HIGH  COURT  OF  CHANCERY.         345 

The  only  difference  between  Probate  and  Chan- 
cery appears  to  be  this :  Probate  does  not  hold  on  to 
cases  for  centuries  as  Chancery  does,  because  we  are 
a  somewhat  faster  people,  and  can  make  way  with 
dead  men's  estates  in  a  shorter  time,  but  lust  as  cer- 
tain. The  results  are  identical.  Probate  is  more 
criminal  in  its  onslaught  upon  the  defenceless  than 
Chancery.  It  is  man  against  man  in  the  one  case, 
and  it  is  women  and  children  against  men  and 
courts  in  the  other.  How  unequal  the  strife  !  Chan- 
cery makes  no  invidious  sex-distinction  :  it  seizes  — 
like  the  many-armed  octopus  —  all  within  its  grasp, 
and  sucks  them  into  its  inextricable  maelstrom  of 
destruction.  But  Probate  has  a  more  delicate  pal- 
ate :  it  fattens  upon  defenceless  widows  and  tender 
orphans,  until  there  is  not  skin  enough  left  upon 
their  fleshless  bodies  to  rattle  their  bones  in. 

Not  till  the  grave  gives  up  its  dead  will  the  crimes 
perpetrated  under  probate  law  and  probate  protec- 
tion be  brought  to  light ! 


CHAPTER   XXVIII. 

CONCLUDING  KEMABKS. 
Pro  aris  etfoces. 

WHAT  shall  I  say  in  conclusion  ?  How  can  I  sum 
up  in  a  single  chapter  the  innumerable  abominations 
practised  by  the  Probate  Court,  and  sanctioned  by 
law?  It  would  take  a  pen  plucked  from  the  wing 
of  the  destroying  angel,  and  dipped  in  blood,  to  ade- 
quately describe  this  probate  confiscation  busii 

Would  that  I  could  trace  in  words  of  flame,  the 
days,  weeks,  and  years  of  corroding  uncertainty; 
the  cruel  loss  of  property  by  being  prevented  from 
handling  it  at  an  advantageous  moment;  the  rob- 
bery of  the  mother,  by  an  iniquitous  inquisition,  of 
the  control  of  her  offspring ;  the  crime  of  being 
plundered  of  one's  substance  ;  the  disgrace  of  pov- 
erty, and  the  frigidity  of  acquaintances !  I  cannot 
mar  the  holy  name  of  friendship  in  this  connection. 
Adversity  is  the  crucible  in  which  that  most  rare 
element  i?-  tried.  Nothing  but  fine  gold  can  with- 
stand the  white  heat  of  adversity.  Dross  is  dissi- 
pated like  chaff  before  a  gale.  It  is  of  the  value 
and  consistency  of  thistle-down  upon  the  air,  or 
346 


CONCLUDING  REMARKS.  347 

foam  upon  the  billow.  It  partakes  of  the  nature 
of  gases  —  inconstant,  intangible,  inconsistent,  in- 
scrutable. A  widow  is  a  target  for  thieves  ;  particu- 
larly when  she.  stands  alone,  without  a  muscular 
protector  in  the  shape  of  father,  brother,  or  son. 
She  is  robbed,  under  the  guise  of  friendship,  by  pro- 
fessed friends  of  her  late  husband,  who  have  axes  to 
grind.  They  want  a  portion,  or  all  there  is  left, 
after  the  insatiable  jaws  of  the  Probate  Court  have 
relaxed  their  hold,  to  sharpen  the  edges  of  those 
useful  implements. 

I  have  been  robbed  of  over  a  thousand  dollars  in 
gold,  outside  of  the  flaying  by  the  Probate  Court  and 
the  Gilroy  phlebotomizing,  since  my  husband's  death; 
I  have  been  plundered  by  confidence-operators  — 
sharpers  ;  I  have  paid  debts  for  bankrupts  —  where 
I  owed  not  a  farthing ;  I  lost  $150  on  my  letter  of 
credit,  $120  mortgage  tax,  and  $100  lent  an  indi- 
vidual who  is  under  obligations  to  me  that  money 
cannot  pay.  For  every  dollar  that  I  have  lost  in 
and  out  of  the  court,  I  pray  that  swift  retribution 
may  overtake  the  thieves. 

I  wish  that  every  person  who  makes  it  a  point  to 
steal  by  borrowing,  or  any  other  nefarious  device, 
had  just  twenty-four  hours  in  which  to  make  resti- 
tution ;  and,  if  he  did  not  do  it  in  that  time,  that 
then  and  there  he  might  be  hung  by  the  neck  until 
dead.  From  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  from  the  big 
pilferer  to  the  petty  sneak-thief,  I  wish  this  law  was 
enacted  and  put  into  speedy  execution. 


348  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

What  a  cathartic  it  would  give  this  nation !  It 
would  be  worth  an  ocean  of  "gentle  aperients"  such 
as  the  lax  law  bestows  upon  princely  thieves,  while 
a  lad  that  steals  a  loaf  of  bread,  to  keep  fiom  starv- 
ing, is  sent  to  jail  to  be  locked  up  with  hardened 
criminals  for  days  before  he  comes  to  trial ;  and  the 
man  who  steals  a  small  amount  of  money,  to  buy 
food  for  his  famishing  wife  and  babes,  is  sent  to  San 
Quentin.  He  did  not  dip  deep  enough  I  One  needs 
to  be  a  princely  thief,  with  kingly  attributes,  to  com- 
mand universal  admiration  through  all  the  descend- 
ing gradations  from  the  pinnacle  of  unsullied  lawn 
and  ermine  to  the  black-hole  of  scullion  and  boot- 
black. 

He  must  make  a  grand  harvest  of  the  substance  of 
widows  and  orphans,  and  the  poor  man's  savings 
that  he  has  laid  up  with  much  toil  and  privation  to 
buy  a  home  for  his  loved  ones.  The  lower  million 
must  sweat  to  keep  the  money-autocrat  upon  the 
summit  of  power.  The  spectacle  of  the  law  with 
bandaged  eyes,  and  limping  sadly,  where  powerful 
men  are  concerned,  and  bitterly  vengeful  and  abnor- 
mally energetic  when  the  vulgar  culprit  is  dragged 
before  the  judgment-seat,  is  not  at  all  improving. 
The  unfortunate  wretch  who  has  no  money  to  buy 
indulgences  is  wrung  to  the  last  withers  to  pay  all 
kinds  of  taxes  to  replenish  "  Uncle  Sam's  "  capacious 
pockets,  which  are  open  to  so  many  unclean  fingers. 
"  To  him  that  hath,  much  shall  be  given ;  but  from 
him  that  hath  not,  even  that  which  he  hath  shall  be 


CONCLUDING  REMARKS.  349 

taken  away."  This  may  not  be  a  literal  quotation. 
I  don't  think  it  is.  It  would  be  a  mental  impos- 
sibility to  remember  gospel-text  while  probating. 
This  statement  seems  strangely  familiar.  If  I  have 
made  use  of  it  before  in  these  pages,  I  beg  pardon. 
Still  it  will  bear  repetition. 

I  give  the  history  of  my  own  case,  not  because  it 
differs  materially  from  thousands  of  others,  not 
because  I  expect  to  recover  any  of  the  squandered 
substance  :  I  give  it  for  a  precedent  and  a  warning 
to  others.  Although  letters  of  administration  were 
granted  in  August,  the  same  month  that  Mr.  Stow 
died,  the  inventory,  strange  to  relate,  was  not  filed 
until  the  17th  of  December.  What  caused  the  four 
months  delay?  What  hidden  bonanza  was  unearthed 
in  all  those  weeks  and  months,  to  warrant  any  such 
sacrifice  of  valuable  time  and  money  ?  Would  the 
judge  have  been  as  patient  with  a  widow  who  was 
acting  without  bonds  ?  Would  he  not  have  been 
alarmed  for  the  safety  of  creditors  ? 

Why  does  a  court  of  justice  protect  the  power 
obtained  from  a  dying  man  ?  Mr.  Stow  was  in  a 
dying  condition  when  he  signed  the  will,  and  per- 
mitted those  men  to  serve  as  executors.  He  was 
not  responsible  for  what  he  did,  as  is  proven  by  his 
having  made  no  provision  for  the  return  of  his  des- 
titute wife,  who  was  seven  thousand  miles  distant  at 
the  time,  and  by  his  neglecting  to  give  his  sister-in- 
law  the  smallest  token  of  remembrance :  a  woman 
whom  he  loved  so  much ;  with  whom  he  had  lived 


350  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

for  eight  months  before  his  death ;  whose  house  for 
six  weeks  had  been  turned  into  a  hospital,  filled  with 
business-men,  friends,  physicians,  night-watchers,  and 
nurses ;  and  she  herself  having  had  no  rest  by  day 
or  by  night  during  this  time.  Was  Mr.  Stow,  when 
in  his  right  mind,  a  man  to  forget  these  things  ?  To 
this  woman  he  turned  in  the  .last  mortal  agrny  ; 
upon  her.  lips  his  last  kiss  was  pressed  ;  his  last  look 
was  upon  her  face  ;  within  her  arms  the  wave  of 
life  made  its  last  ebb,  — 

"  And  the  spirit  leaped  forward  —  whither,  none  know  1 " 

The  will  was  ready-made  for  him  to  sign.  It  was 
made  fox  no  other  purpose  than  to  get  control  of  the 
property,  for  it  is  executed  according  to.  the  laws  of 
California ;  and  therefore  I  am  neither  a  gainer  nor 
loser  by  the  instrument,  only  so  far  as  I  am  robbed 
of  the  power  of  administration,  and  all  knowledge  of 
its  progress. 

There  never  has  been  a  single  publication  of  a 
statement  of  affairs,  as  is  required  by  statute,  up  to 
this  writing.  Is  this  LAw  ?  Is  this  JUSTICE  ? 

Men  call  it  justice :  I  don't.  I  call  it  the  extract 
of  barbarism,  worthy  of  fiends  but  not  of  men. 
Manhood  should  hide  its  face,  and  civilization  stand 
aghast,  at  such  an  outrage  upon  common  decency. 
This  is  a  widow's  protection  under  statute  law,  and 
this  is  the  highway  to  ruin  of  dead  men's  estates. 
With  a  living  widow  there  should  be  no  "  dead 
men's  estates."  We  hear  nothing  about  "dead 


CONCLUDING  REMARKS.  351 

women's  estates  "  -  as  regards  community  property 
—  who  leave  widowers. 

What  right  has  a  husband's  family  to  property 
earned  by  the  joint  efforts  of  himself  and  wife,  after 
•his  death,  even  when  there  are  no  children  ?  None 
at  all :  any  more  than  the  wife's  family  has  a  right 
to  one-half  or  two-thirds  of  the  property,  where 
there  are  no  children,  after  the  husband's  death. 
But  the  childless  widow  is  never  permitted  to  have 
all  the  community  property,  unless  the  husband  has 
willed  it  to  her.  What  a  shame  !  He  may  have 
desired  it,  but  neglected  to  make  a  will  to  that  effect ; 
and  then  the  one-half  or  two-thirds  reverts  to  people 
whom  she  has  never  seen,  or  hates,  perhaps,  because 
they  thought  her  husband  had  made  a  mesalliance 
by  marrying  her.  If  the  husband  should  happen  to 
be  the  "  last  of  the  Grogans,"  this  lovely  law,  in  some 
of  the  States,  still  wrests  the  half  or  two-thirds  of 
the  property  from  the  rightful  owner,  and  gives  it  to 
the  State.  What  business  has  the  State  with  a 
widow's  property,  more  than  it  has  with  a  widow- 
er's? 

Be  not  deceived :  this  court  strikes  at  the  vitals 
of  every  household  in  the  land.  A  husband  con- 
serves and  saves  every  dollar  to  make  a  beautiful  or 
comfortable  home  for  his  family ;  but,  if  death  over- 
take him  before  his  race  is  run,  this  competence  falls 
into  Probate,  and  is  scattered  to  the  four  winds. 
Therefore,  "know  all  men  by  these  presents,"  that 
you  may  be  laying  up  treasures  where  moth  and  rust 


352  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

doth  corrupt  (the  Probate  Court),  and  where  thieves 
(its  satellites)  do  break  through  and  steal. 

This  laying  hold  of  dead  men's  estates  and  eating 
them  up  piecemeal,  while  the  rightful  owners  are 
dying  piecemeal,  —  dying  of  hope  deferred,  of  ener- 
gies wasted,  days,  months,  years,  of  agonized  sus- 
pense,—  "is  being  ground  to  bits  in  a  slow  mill ;  is 
being  roasted  at  a  slow  fire  ;  is  being  stung  to  death 
by  single  bees ;  is  being  drowned  by  drops ;  is  grow- 
ing mad  by  grains." 

Could  I  in  one  terse  page  exhibit  all  the  misery, 
all  the  degradation,  all  the  ruin,  which  the  abuse  of 
this  so-called  court  of  justice  has,  in  the  last  century, 
accumulated  upon  the  defenceless  heads  of  humanity, 
not  all  the  famed  writers  of  the  past,  nor  the  ambi- 
tious aspirants  of  future  greatness,  would  suffice  to 
portray  the  horrors  practised  by  this  monstrous 
mountain  of  iniquity,  —  with  its  miners  and  sappers, 
its  deadly  shafts  and  pit-holes,  its  upper  and  lower 
levels  of  qualified  and  unqualified  torture,  —  which 
lifts  its  head  BO  sullenly,  so  defiantly.  The  rich  ore 
(widow's  estates)  is  crushed  by  the  stamps  of  modern 
justice  ;  and,  when  the  "clean-up"  comes,  the  li^ul 
vultures  —  from  the  Lord  High  Chancellor  Judge 
down  to  the  pot-of-paste  poster — swoop  down,  and 
gather  up  the  free  gold,  and  leave  the  worthless  tail- 
ings for  the  widows  and  orphans.  And  this  is  just 

As  I,  day  by  day  for  nearly  three  years,  witnessed 
the  deadly  evils  culminating  in  this  most  corrupt 
and  corruptible  institution,  I  resolved  that  hence- 


CONCLUDING  REMARKS.  353 

forth  and  forever  my  occupation  should  be  to  eradi- 
cate, expose,  and  destroy,  this  sum  of  all  human 
abominations,  —  this  Probate  Court  system,  on  its 
present  basis,  as  regards  community  property.  Ex- 
termination is  the  keynote ;  for,  what  help  is  there, 
what  panacea,  what  redemption,  so  long  as  this 
thieving  court  exists  ?  None  whatever :  and  yet  .we 
(widows)  are  free!  Yes  :  — 

"  We  are  as  free  as  sorrow  is  to  laugh  and  talk, 
Free  as  sick  men  are  to  ride  and  walk. ' ' 

All  I  ask  is,  that  widows  may  be  governed  by  the 
same  laws  which  govern  widowers  ;  no  more,  no  less. 
The  English  law,  of  which  ours  is  a  direct  outgrowth, 
is  the  most  oppressive,  in  its  character  and  practice, 
upon  women,  of  a'hy  laws  in  the  civilized  world. 
And  yet  in  conservative,  monarchical  England  to- 
day, women  are  granted  far  more  privileges  than 
they  are  in  this  country,  where  a  hundred  years  ago 
we  slipped  the  English  yoke  of  oppressive  intoler- 
ance. There  women  vote  in  municipal  elections 
under  the  same  conditions  that  men  vote ;  and  since 
1870  every  wife  carry  ing  on  a  separate  business  from 
that  of  her  husband  is  entirely  protected  in  her 
industry,  as  much  as  though  she  were  a  spinster 
instead  of  a  femme  de  convert.  Such  laws  are  pro- 
tective,, and  encourage  industry.  Wedlock  should 
be  no  more  binding  upon  a  woman  than  upon  a 
man.  In  many  of  the  Continental  countries  the  wife 
is  as  free  —  as  regards  her  own  property  and  industry 
—in  wedlock,  as  out  of  it. 


354  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

A  widow  (in  some  of  the  States)  in  Probate  — 
our  High  Court  of  Chancery  —  is  treated  precisely 
like  a  criminal.  He  is  not  allowed  to  testify  for  his- 
own  benefit,  because  he  has  broken  the  law.  She  is 
not  allowed  to  testify  for  her  own  benefit,  because 
she  has  lost  her  protector.  She  is  not  allowed  to 
handle  the  property  which  she  has  earned,  if  her 
departed  lord  willed  it  otherwise.  And  this  is  jus- 
tice ! 

The  Stow  estate  was  inventoried  at  $40,000,  be- 
side the  $100,000  claim  against  the  Russell  &  Erwin 
Manufacturing  Company,  which  had  been  in  litiga- 
tion for  years  at  the  time  of  my  husband's  death. 
In  January,  1876,  there  was  a  compromise  effected 
for  $26,000,  and  it  was  then  said  that  there  would  be 
immediate  distribution  of  estate.  The  middle  of  the 
following  April,  Mr.  Pringle,  the  executor's  lawyer, 
said  they  could  not  get  the  money.  How  marvel- 
lously strange !  What  caused  the  delay  ?  It  is 
alleged  that  the  principal  and  added  interest  on  the 
Ralston,  or  Bank  of  California,  claim,  amounts  to 
over  $40,000,  and  it  is  running  up,  each  month,  a 
formidable  interest,  at  one  per  cent. 

My  husband  said,  ere  I  left  for  Europe,  that  he 
owed  no  man  a  dollar ;  and  I  believe  he  spoke  the 
truth.  And  yet  I  get  not  a  farthing  out  of  the  estate, 
not  even  the  thousands  which  I  lent  him  out  of  my 
separate  property.  And  this  is  justice  ! 

If  I  had  been  permitted  to  administer  upon  the 
estate,  I  should  be  at  least  $1,500  richer  than  I  am,  — 


CONCLUDING  REMARKS.  355 

that  is  the  per  cent  awarded  upon  $40,000,  —  and  I 
think  that  I  could  have  closed  the  affairs  of  the  estate 
in  twelve  months  without  any  particular  strain  of 
mind  or  muscle  ;  and  I  also  think  with  a  much  better 
showing  than  there  will  be  when  the  matter  sees  the 
light  from  the  present  incumbents.  As  near  as  I  can 
judge  from  the  outer-wall  of  the  situation,  it  stands 
just  where  it  did  a  year  ago.  It  is  the  3d  of  April, 
1877,  at  this  writing.  I  do  not  think  that  Milton  H. 
My  rick  would  have  suffered  me  to  go  forward  for 
nearly  three  years  without  publishing  any  account  of 
my  transactions,  particularly  if  some  powerful  credi- 
tor had  insisted,  time  after  time,  upon  having  light 
where  all  was  darkness ;  and  further,  if  I  had  been 
acting  without  bonds ;  and  further,  if  the  said  power- 
ful creditor  believed  there  was  a  very  big  fraud  being 
perpetrated  by  me,  and  had  brought  suit  to  have  me 
deposed.  Verily,  it  hath  a  dishonest  look  and  a  bad 
odor.  A  little  daylight  would  improve  the  situation. 
Uncover  by  all  means  ! 

I  never  have  been  served  with  a  single  notice,  as 
the  law  requires,  by  the  executors  or  any  other  parties 
to  this  legal  farce  in  many  acts.  Judge  Myrick  has 
repeatedly  promised  to  -get  my  husband's  private 
correspondence  and  papers,  which  the  executors  never 
had  any  business  with ;  but  it  has  ended  in  promises, 
nothing  else.  But  Milton  H.  M}rrick  is  v,  just  judge  ! 

Mr.  Stow  told  me  three  or  four  years  ago,  that 
the  Russell  &  Erwin  Manufacturing  Company  had 
offered  to  compromise  for  $40,000,  but  that  he  was 


356  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

advised  by  his  lawyers  (Messrs.  Pringle  and  Wilson) 
and  a  business  associate  (Mr.  Ralston),  not  to  accept 
the  terms.  He  further  said  to  me,  just  before  I  went 
abroad,  that  this  suit  had  cost  him  over  820,000  in 
gold  to  carry  it  on  up  to  that  time.  If  I  had  been 
allowed  the  control  of  the  property  which  should 
have  been  mine  at  my  husband's  death,  I  should 
have  come  to  terms  of  settlement  at  once  with  this 
company.  At  that  time  they  would  have  been  far 
more  favorably  inclined,  probably,  than  seventeen 
months  later,  with  all  the  accrued  costs.  But  as  it 
was,  the  suit  was  kept  brewing  with  two  Iaw3rers 
here  on  big  pay,  and  one  in  New  York,  after  Mr. 
S tow's  death,  eating  up  the  estate  in  lawyers'  and 
court  fees,  and  the  deadly  one  per  cent  interest  on 
admitted  claims.  This  looks  to  me  like  maladminis- 
tration ! 

There  is  another  suit  of  $4,166.,66  brought  against 
J.D.  Gulp  and  the  estate  of  Hoover,  which  was  still 
in  court  when  I  left  San  Francisco  in  January,  1877. 
I  thought  Mr.  Stow  befriended  Mr.  Gulp  in  his  hour 
of  need.  If  so,  why  is  it  necessary  to  sue  him  to  get 
back  borrowed  money,  or  an  honest  debt  of  any  kind? 
and  why  was  not  this  matter  attended  to  immedi- 
ately after  Mr.  Stow's  death,  when  it  takes  so  many 
months  to  get  a  suit,  however  trivial,  through  the 
swift-footed  courts  ?  As  small  a  debt  as  that,  I  should 
think,  were  better  not  paid  at  all,  than  to  have  the 
interest  on  admitted  claims,  in  the  tune  consumed 
for  trial,  costs  of  court,  lawyers'  fees,  and  travelling 


CONCLUDING  REMARKS.  357 

expenses  from  San  Francisco  to  Gilroy,  cancel  the 
amount  many -times  over. 

Then,  again,  Maurice  Dore  and  the  other  executor 
and  Mr.  Gulp  are  loving  brother  officers,  and  colossal 
stock-owners,  in  the  "  Gilroy  Consolidated  Tobacco 
Company."  How  strange  that  they  should  love  one 
day,  and  fight  the  next ! 

I  see  not  the  shadow  of  a  reason,  if  there  had  been 
the  smallest  desire  on  the  part  of  the  executors,  why 
the  estate  should  not  have  been  closed  up  within  the 
year.  What  right  had  they  to  allow  any  creditor  to 
impoverish  it  by  continuing  a  lawsuit  of  $100,000, 
which  any  one,  with  half  an  eye,  could  have  seen  at 
a  glance  was  better  to  settle  at  once  upon  almost  any 
terms  ?  Who  has  been  benefited  ?  Lawyers  and 
courts ;  while  the  estate  has  melted  like  snow  before 
the  sun.  And  this  is  justice  ! 

Fidelity  to  the  cause  of  humanity,  especially  the 
cause  of  widows,  requires  me  to  make  public  the  facts 
of  this  notorious  Probate  persecution  and  depletion, 
in  order  to  have  their  true  legal  position  known  and 
fully  appreciated;  and  also  to  show  how  entirely 
destitute  a  widow  —  without  influential  male  kindred 
—  is  of  any  legal  protection  except  what  the  will  and 
wishes  of  the  executors  secure  her  —  in  my  case  that 
was  none  at  all ;  and  also  to  demonstrate  the  fact 
that  Probate  law  everywhere,  in  relation  to  widows, 
not  only  gravitates  towards  an  absolute  despotism, 
but  even  protects,  sustains,  and  defends  a  despotism 
of  the  most  arbitrary  and  absolute  kind.  Therefore, 


358  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

in  order  to  have  her  social  position  changed  legally, 
the  need  of  this  change  must  first  be  seen  and  appre- 
ciated by  the  people,  —  the  voters  of  the  Republic. 
To  correct  legal  abuses  we  must  begin  at  the  ballot- 
box.  The  voice  of  the  people,  and  the  voice  of  th<> 
people  alone,  will  effect  the  much-needed  reform. 
Legislators  will  act  when  the  people  desire  it,  but 
never  before.  They  are  the  mouthpiece  of  the 
people,  the  echo  of  the  popular  voice.  Therefore 
the  people  must  be  educated,  and  demand  a  change, 
ere  legislators  will  act  in  the  matter. 

The  only  property  which  should  go  into  Probate  is 
that  of  entire  orphans,  separate  estates,  and  bequt 
and  these  should  never  be  thrown  into  court  unit- 
fraud  was  to  be  perpetrated.     I  would  not  permit  a 
farthing  of  an  estate  to  be  sequestered  in  unconscion- 
able courts  if  it  could  be  avoided.     Friendly  adjust- 
ment and  peaceful  arbitration  should  be  exhausted 
ere  it  fell  into  ruinous  litigation,  with  its  entail  of 
deferred  hopes,  squandered  time,  engendered  malice, 
and  all  its  vast  sisterhood  of  evils. 

If  forensic  squabbles  were  settled  as  they  were  four 
hundred  years  ago  in  Germany,  they  would  not  be 
quite  so  protracted,  and  litigants  would  be  the  gainers. 
At  that  date  of  the  world's  history,  in  courts  of  justice 
men  fought  with  their  fists,  instead  of  their  tongues, 
to  see  who  should  have  the  decision  of  the  court ;  and, 
if  the  judge's  decision  was  unsatisfactory,  then  the 
judge  fought  with  the  council.  How  I  should  enjoy 
witnessing  such  a  tussle  in  the  San  Franc-ism  1V>1 


CONCLUDING  REMARKS.  359 

Court !  I  may  live  to  see  it.  We've  got  back  the 
jvhipping-post.  No  telling  what  the  next  revolution 
of  the  wheel  will  bring  forth. 

Before  the  readers  of  this  book  condemn,  because 
I  have  written  so  bitterly,  let  them  pause  and  consider 
what  I  have  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  law  and  its 
manipulators ;  what  a  furnace  of  white  heat  I  have 
passed  through  by  having  my  substance  stolen  from 
me.  If  my  house  is  consumed  by  flames,  I  call  it 
burning ;  if  my  friend  accidentally  gets  under  water, 
and  is  suffocated,  I  call  it  drowning ;  if  I  am  despoiled 
of  my  substance,  I  call  it  stealing.  You  may  indulge 
in  a  more  refined  sobriquet :  I  don't.  These  law-pro- 
tected thieves  have  reduced  me  to  the  condition  of  a 
beggar  and  an  emigrant  —  with  all  its  attendant  hor- 
rors ;  they  have  made  out  my  husband  a  PAUPER  — 
when  he  died  a  rich  man.  I  marvel  that  a  man  of  his 
personal  pride  can  rest  in  his  grave  under  such  a  vile 
stigma.  I  should  think  he  would  rise  up  in  his  cere- 
ments, and  lay  his  cold  hands,  in  a  withering  blight, 
upon  their  guilty  heads. 

Against  the  combined  power  of  executors,  credi- 
tors, lawyers,  judges,  and  courts,  I  cry  out.  This 
adamantine  combination  is  what  causes  the  financial 
and  moral  ruin  of  so  many  widows  and  orphans. 
These  human  vultures  are  leagued  together  to  get 
every  farthing  they  can  la}'  hold  of.  I  cannot  express 
my  loathing  of  such  criminal  proceedings  and  prac- 
tices in  words  that  convey  half  I  feel  upon  this  sub- 
ject. I  hate  them  with  a  perfect  hatred;  and  pray 


SCO  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

for  more  height,  and  depth,  and  length,  and  breadth 
of  capacity,  with  which  to  hate  them.  I  hurl  against 
them  the  anathemas  of  outraged  womanhood;  the 
scorn  of  a  soul  too  white  to  take  a  bribe  ;  the  groans 
of  the  millions  that  they  have  scorched  with  the  fires 
of  ruin,  and  blasted  with  the  simoom  of  despair. 

Tamerlane  asked  for  one  hundred  and  sixty  thou- 
sand skulls,  with  which  to  build  a  pyramid  to  his 
honor.  He  got  the  skulls,  and  built  the  pyramid . 
but,  if  the  bones  of  all  those  who  have  fallen  a  prey 
to  Probate  confiscation  could  be  piled  up,  they  would 
make  a  monster  pyramid.  Talk  not  of  Waterloo 
and  Austerlitz :  they  were  not  fields  of  blood  com- 
pared with  this  great  Golgotha. 

Upon  the  Probate  altar,  smeared  with  blood  and 
tears,  burn  day  by  day  the  fortunes  and  hopes  of 
widows  and  orphans, — a  ghastly  holocaust,  —  and, 
when  they  are  allowed  to  gather  up  the  fragments, 
the  flame  is  spent — there  remains  nothing  but  ashes. 
I  have  endeavored,  in  these  pages,  to  spread  before 
my  readers  the  cruelty,  the  woes,  the  terrors,  the 
auguish,  the  perdition,  of  this  evil,  hoping  thereby  to 
rouse  them  to  a  true  sense  of  the  unspeakable  injus- 
tice of  the  Probate  Court. 

My  prayer  is,  that  for  the  bitter  drops  moneyed- 
might,  sex-might,  and  law-might  press  into  my  cup, 
I  may  have  strength  to  drink  them  to  the  dregs,  — 
without  flinching,  —  and  then  have  strength  enough 
remaining  to  hurl  the  empty  cup,  with  my  fiercest 
denunciation  and  deathless  defiance,  into  the  face  of 


CONCLUDING  REMARKS.  361 

such  shameless  injustice.  And  I  further  pray,  morn- 
ing, noon,  and  night,  to  Christ,  who  hung  upon  the 
cross  to  atone  for  the  sins  of  a  lost  world,  that  he 
will  bring  swift  retribution  upon  the  heads  of  all  those 
who  directly  or  indirectly  rob  the  widow  and  the 
orphan.  My  curse  —  a  widow1 8  curse  —  is  upon  them. 
May  poverty  and  pestilence  overtake  them ;  may  their 
dreams  be  haunted  with  the  glare  of  dead  men's  eyes, 
and  the  icy  touch  of  dead  men's  fingers,  whose  widows 
and  orphans  they  have  plundered  or  debauched  ;  may 
their  days  on  earth  be  short,  and  filled  with  all  disas- 
ter ;  and  when  death  clutches  them  with  too  firm  a 
grasp  to  be  shaken  off,  and  they  are  compelled  to  leave 
their  ill-gotten  spoils,  m&y  they  have  a  scorcher  pre- 
pared for  them  down  below,  with  the  ghosts  of  aven- 
ging widows  to  pile  on  the  fagots,  and  heap  up  the 
brimstone  I 


EXTRACTS 


REVIEWS  BY  THE  PRESS 


["Evening  Post,"  San  Francisco.] 

WITH  the  keenness  of  a  cimeter  blade  Mrs.  Stow 
dissects  the  incongruities  and  useless  formalities  that  for 
centuries  have  cumbered  the  practice  of  courts,  and  man}'' 
of  which  have  no  further  reason  for  their  existence  than 
that  the  dust  of  ages  has  sanctified  them.  Her  experience 
but  confirms  the  oft-repeated  maxim  that  "  law  is  a  dear 
luxury."  She  certainly  makes  a  strong  prima  facie  case 
of  personal  disappointment,  delay,  and  mental  suffering. 
And  who  shall  say  that  even  as  the  private  wrongs  of  an 
oppressed  subject,  when  told  in  the  public  market-place, 
have  formed  the  battle-cry  of  revolution  that  has  over- 
turned reigning  dynasties,  the  recital  of  her  story  may 
not  reach  the  popular  heart,  and,  by  enlisting  sympathy, 
result  in  more  discriminating  legislation  ? 

["Daily  Examiner,"  San  Francisco.] 

Mrs.  Stow  makes  a  savage  attack  on  the  present  Pro- 
bate Court  system,  which  may  be  entirely  justifiable  ;  but 

365 


366  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

with  the  wrongs  of  the  lad}*  author  it  is  rot  our  purpose 
now  to  deal.  From  the  manifestations  of  intellectual 
vigor  disclosed  in  the  volume,  we  are  inclined  to  believe 
that  she  can  well  maintain  her  own  rights,  or  avenge 
her  own  wrongs.  She  has  undertaken  —  as  it  appears 
from  a  circular  —  to  raise,  by  subscription,  the  net  pro- 
ceeds of  lectures,  readings,  and  the  sale  of  her  books, 
"Probate  Confiscation"  and  "Little  Etta's  Frontier 
Life,"  the  sum  of  $25,000  to  establish  HORTICULTURAL 
COLLEGES  FOR  WOMEN.  She  hopes  to  secure  that  amount 
by  the  spring  of  1880  ;  at  which  time,  if  her  expectations 
are  realized,  she  intends  to  establish  the  initial  school. 
She  is  most  anxious  to  open  up  this  beautiful  branch  of 
industry  in  the  United  States  to  women.  She  found, 
while  travelling  in  Europe  in  1874,  that  it  was  largety  in 
their  hands,  both  on  the  Continent  and  in  the  United 
Kingdom,  particularly  floriculture.  It  is  in  all  its  varied 
departments  an  avocation  admirably  fitted  to  women. 
There  is  perfect  harmony  between  it  and  them.  It  is 
healthful  and  remunerative. 

The  undertaking  in  which  this  energetic  and  talented 
lady  has  engaged  is  a  most  deserving  one,  and  we  wish 
her  eminent  success  in  her  efforts  to  ameliorate  the  present 
condition  of  her  sex. 

["Sunday  Chronicle,"  San  Francisco.] 

Mrs.   Stow  makes   an  indignant  protest   against  the 
probate  laws  of  the  State.     Her  book  contains  an  account 
of  the  death  of  her  husband,  her  efforts  to  obtain  her. 
allowance,  her  conversations  with  lawyers,  and  her  many 
grievances   and  privations.     The  style  of  the   work 
entertaining,  and  it  affords  considerable  lively  reading. 


EXTRACTS  FROM  REVIEWS  BY  THE  PRESS.      367 

["Morning  Call,"  San  Francisco.] 
The  book  is  of  more  than  ordinary  merit. 

["  Daily  News,"  Oakland,  Cal.] 

"Probate  Confiscation"  is  the  title  of  a  work  laid 
apon  our  table  by  the  author,  Mrs.  J.  W.  Stow.  No 
man  was  more  widely  known,  or  more  highly  spoken  of, 
than  her  husband ;  and  the  announcement  of  his  death 
caused  universal  sorrow.  It  was  believed  by  all  his 
friends  that  he  had  a  very  valuable  estate  ;  but  the  report 
of  the  executors  to  the  probate  judge  discloses  the  fact 
that  he  was  insolvent.  His  widow,  in  trying  to  save 
something  for  herself  from  the  estate,  has  been  initiated 
into  the  wonderful  mysteries  of  the  Probate  Court.  She 
gives  her  opinions  boldly,  and  without  mincing  her  words, 
of  the  disgrace  to  the  present  age  of  such  a  corrupt  sys- 
tem.  Her  arguments  in  behalf  of  a  change  in  the  probate 
laws  will  be  hard  to  answer,  and  should  be  read  by  all. 
Her  treatment  has  been  simply  outrageous,  and  done 
under  the  color  of  law  makes  it  harder  to  bear.  We  hope 
she  will  succeed  in  so  changing  the  laws  that  are  made  to 
protect  widows  and  orphans,  that  no  such  case  as  she 
portrays  will  ever  be  heard  of  in  the  State  again.  To 
get  an  estate  to  administer  upon  is  equal  to  a  bonanza. 
We  say  to  all,  Read  this  book,  and  learn  what  probate 
confiscation  means. 

["Evening Express,"  Los  Angeles,  Cal.] 
Mrs.  Stow  addresses  herself  mainly  to  the  operation  of 
the  law  in  regard  to  widows,  and  cites  instances  where 
the  whole  substance  of  estates  has  been  swallowed  up  by 
post-mortem  litigation,  and  where  the  red-tape  circumlo- 
cution, tedious  delays,  and  extraordinary  expenses,  have 


368  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

left  nothing  for  the  support  of  the  widow  and  orphans. 
Everybody  who  is  at  all  conversant  with  the  machinery  of 
our  Probate  Courts  knows  that  the}'  are  cumbersome  and 
exhaustive,  and  that  great  wrongs  are  inflicted  on  sur- 
vivors by  the  slow  process  of  winding  up  the  estates  of 
deceased  persons.  It  would  be  to  the  credit  of  the  State 
if  California  should  reform  the  abuses  complained  of;  and 
if  Mrs.  Stow  can,  in  her  crusade,  contribute  to  this 
reformation,  she  will  have  the  good  wishes  of  all  right- 
thinking  people. 

["New North-West,"  Portland,  Or.] 

Probate  Confiscation,  as  the  title  indicates,  shows  up  in 
scathing  terms  the  property  laws  of  California,  and  the 
gross  injustice  to  which  they  subject  woman.  Women 
who  wish  to  understand  what  every  woman  should  under- 
stand —  the  laws  that  most  nearly  concern  their  personal 
interest  —  should  have  a  copy  of  this  book. 

["  The  DaUy  Bee,"  Sacramento,  March  31,  1877.] 
New  York  journals  of  a  recent  date  give  some  notable 
instances  of  the  outrageous  manner  in  which  the  estates 
of  deceased  persons  are  not  unfrequently  plundered  and 
squandered  under  the  present  probate  system,  and  the 
families  of  the  deceased  wantonly  robbed  by  harpies  act 
ing  under  the  authority  and  cognizance  of  probate  courts 
and  probate  laws.  A  man  named  Taylor  died,  leaving 
property  worth  over  two  millions  of  dollars,  with  liabili- 
ties amounting  to  about  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  dollars. 
In  less  than  five  years  the  executors  and  other  harpies, 
including  a  goodly  number  of  the  legal  fraternity,  made 
away  with  every  dollar  of  the  assets,  and  the  wardrobe  of 


EXTRACTS  FROM  REVIEWS  BY  THE  PRESS.      369 

the  widow — which  was  very  valuable  —  was  sold  at  sher- 
iffs sale,  to  satisfy  an  execution  for  money  loaned  her  to 
supply  her  necessities  while  the  legal  hyenas  were  robbing 
her  under  cover  of  law.  Another  man  died,  leaving  prop- 
erty worth  half  a  million,  with  scarcely  any  incumbrance, 
also  a  widow  and  children.  The  other  day,  after  a  lapse 
of  about  two  j'ears,  the  executor  presented  his  accounts  to 
the  court,  showing  that  he  had  managed  his  opportunities 
for  stealing  under  the  forms  of  law  so  well  that  only  $180 
was  left  to  be  distributed  among  the  heirs.  The  abuses 
practised  under  the  probate  system  of  New  York  are 
liable  to  be  practised  in  California,  because  the  systems 
of  the  two  States  are  practically  identical.  In  fact,  the 
system  in  all  the  States  is  nearly  identical,  and  seems  to 
have  been  framed  with  the  express  purpose  of  promoting 
litigation,  and  enabling  parties  to  become  rich  by  plun- 
dering the  dead,  and  impoverishing  the  living. 

In  this  State,  a  few  years  ago,  a  Mrs.  J.  W.  Stow,  as 
many  others  have  been,  was  made  the  victim  of  unjust 
probate  laws.  Being  a  woman  of  pluck,  energ}',  business 
capacity,  and  intelligence,  she  commenced  a  vigorous  war 
upon  the  present  pernicious  S3rstem.  She  laid  before  the 
Legislature  of  this  State  a  bill  having  for  its  object  a  law 
providing,  that,  upon  the  death  of  the  husband  or  wife, 
one-half  of  the  entire  communit}7  property — without  ad- 
ministration —  belongs  to  the  surviving  husband  or  wife, 
together  with  the  home  and  all  pertaining  thereto,  and 
the  other  half  to  their  children,  the  issue  of  their  mar- 
riage ;  but  if  thero  are  no  children  the  entire  property 
belongs  to  the  survivor;  also,  that  the  survivor  shall 
have  the  sole  management,  care,  control,  and  disposition 
of  said  community  property,  as  a  surviving  partner  has 


570  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

the  sole  power  to  settle  the  affairs  of  a  co-partnership  at 
the  death  of  one  of  the  partners.  In  furtherance  of  her 
ideas  she  presented  an  address  to  the  Legislature,  and  also 
published  a  book  upon  the  subject.  The  volume  which  is 
now  before  us  is  filled  with  powerful  arguments  in  sup- 
port of  her  views,  and  seems  to  thoroughly  demonstrate 
the  correctness  of  her  position.  We  understand  that  she 
is  about  issuing  from  the  press  of  Boston  a  new  and 
revised  edition  of  the  valuable  work.  If  by  her  efforts 
she  succeeds  in  obtaining  a  much-needed  reform  of 
the  probate  laws  of  the  land,  Mrs.  Stow  will  achieve  a 
greater  good  for  man  and  woman  than  has  been  or  is 
proposed  to  be  achieved  by  any  of  the  army  of  social 
and  political  reformers  now  displaying  their  banners  in 
the  field  of  progress  and  advancement. 
["Boston  Daily  Globe."] 

" Probate  Confiscation"  is  an  earnest  protest  against 
the  present  system  of  law  b}^  which  the  administration  of 
dead  men's  estates  is  made  fruitful  in  injury  to  widows  and 
fatherless  children  entitled  to  the  property.  The  narration 
of  the  author's  personal  experience  gives  interest  and 
emphasis  to  the  recital  of  these  defects  in  the  probate  law  ; 
and  it  will  oe  impossible  to  read  her  story  without  sympa- 
thizing with  her  efforts  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of 
women  who  are  thus  left  at  the  mercy  of  its  apparently 
inequitable  provision.  Incidently,  the  whole  system  of 
marriage  is  considered  in  its  bearings  upon  women,  both 
in  regard  to  their  property  and  their  feelings.  Th«  right 
to  vote  is  also  earnestly  maintained,  and  the  exposition  of 
the  condition  of  the  sex  under  present  social  and  legal  re- 
lations is  vividly  portrayed.  It  is  not  surprising,  perhaps, 


EXTRACTS  FROM  REVIEWS   OF  THE  PRESS.      371 

in  view  of  the  author's  experience,  that  her  book  is  to  full 
of  passionate  protests  against  abuses.  Its  graphic  lecord 
of  personal  wrongs  is  well  calculated  to  excite  public  in- 
terest, which  its  very  vehemence  will  tend  to  intensify. 

["  Evening  Transcript,"  Boston.] 

It  is  a  comfort  in  these  days,  when  there  is  so  much  that 
is  commonplace  and  tedious  in  the  line  of  literary  issues, 
to  meet  with  something  which  bears  evidence  of  having 
been  written  with  a  purpose,  whose  words  come  hot  from 
the  heart,  as  it  were,  and  retain  their  heat  after  being 
placed  on  paper.  Such  a  book  is  "  Probate  Confisca- 
tion," whose  author,  Mrs.  J.  W.  Stow,  is  well  known  to 
many  of  our  best  citizens.  She  was  the  wife  of  Joseph 
W.  Stow,  a  wealthy  resident  of  San  Francisco,  who  died 
while  she  was  on  a  visit  abroad.  On  her  return  she  found 
herself  literally  penniless.  The  estate  had  gone  into  the 
hands  of  lawyers  and  executors,  and  her  separate  property 
was  tangled  up  with  it.  The  Probate  Court  after  a  long 
time  granted  her  a  small  sum  of  money,  to  be  paid  monthly 
for  a  single  year.  Although  Mr.  Stow  was  supposed  to 
be  very  wealthy,  his  estate  was  declared  insolvent :  Mrs. 
Stow  believed  differently.  Her  treatment,  and  the  treat- 
ment of  other  widows,  by  the  Probate  Court,  roused  her 
indignation ;  and  in  the  present  work  she  has  shown  the 
weak  points  of  probate  law,  and  the  rank  injustice  which 
is  often  done  to  those  who  are  left,  like  herself,  dependent 
upon  its  provisions.  Many  readers  of  the  book  will  un- 
doubtedly condemn  it  for  its  scathing  language,  and  the 
relentless  manner  in  which  she  pillories  lawyers  and  judges, 
dishonest  executors  and  creditors,  in  its  pages.  But  one 
can  hardly  wonder  at  these  characteristics  of  her  work, 


372  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

after  hearing  her  story.  She  feels  that  her  rights  as  a 
woman  and  wife  were  outraged,  and  that  it  was  done  under 
cover  and  protection  of  law. 

["Boston  Herald."] 

"Probate  Confiscation/'  by  Mrs.  J.  W.  Stow  of  San 
Francisco,  is  the  title  of  a  handsome  volume  which  has 
been  written  with  the  noble  purpose  of  bringing  promi- 
nently before  the  public  the  unjust  laws  which  govern 
women.  The  author  has  had,  judging  from  her  story,  a 
hard  and  bitter  experience  in  the  Probate  Court  of  San 
Francisco ;  and  the  injustice  which  she  has  experienced 
has  prompted  her  to  expose  the  faults  of  a  system  by  which 
she  has  been  grievously  wronged.  The  book  is  sold  only 
by  the  author,  price  $2  ;  and  orders  addressed  to  Mrs.  J. 
W.  Stow,  New -York  City,  or  to  her  printers,  Rand,  A  very, 
&  Co.,  Boston,  Mass.,  will  be  promptly  answered. 

["The  Commonwealth,"  Boston.] 

Mrs.  Stow  writes  with  an  energy  and  indignation*,  pour- 
ing out  a  lava-flood  of  denunciation,  sarcasm,  and  reproach, 
upon  the  Probate-Court  officials,  the  lawyers  in  its  in- 
terest, and  other  participants,  as  they  came  to  her  knowl- 
edge in  San  Francisco,  where  her  husband's  affairs  had  to 
pass  in  review  after  his  decease.  Mrs.  Sto?f  seems  to 
compass,  with  a  woman's  intuition,  all  the  difficulties 
which  surround  one  of  her  sex  without  money  or  friends, 
caused  by  such  a  dilemma  as  that  of  suddenly  losing  a 
husband  and  fortune.  She  was  made  to  bitterly  feel  her 
humiliation  in  claiming  what  belonged  to  her.  She  was 
badgored,  condemned,  harassed,  put  off,  seeing  her  hus- 
band s  estate  diminishing  and  fritted  awa}%  until  her  soul 


EXTRACTS  FROM  REVIEWS  OF  THE  PRESS.       373 

overrun  in  this  scathing  exposure  of  ill-treatment.  Those 
who  think  women  have  no  reason  to  claim  a  share  in  the 
government  should  read  such  a  work  as  ' '  Probate  Confis- 
cation." They  will  get  new  light,  and  begin  to  feel  that 
they  have  indeed  some  interest  in  the  proper  making  and 
execution  of  the  laws. 

["  Daily  Evening  Traveller,"  Boston.] 

"Probate  Confiscation;  Unjust  Laws  which  Govern 
Woman,"  is  a  volume  evidently  from  the  pen  of  an  aroused 
woman,  —  a  woman  who  feels  that  an  outrage,  or  a  series  of 
outrages,  has  been  committed  upon  her.  She  is  to  be  feared, 
and,  moreover,  to  be  respected,  like  the  woman  of  the  pox^m 
who  was  spurned.  The  author,  Mrs.  J.  W.  Stow,  has 
taken  an  advanced  station  as  a  lecturer  upon  social  topics, 
mainly  connected  with  the  unjust  and  restrictive  laws  con- 
cerning property-holding.  She  is  bitterly  in  earnest,  and 
feels  equally  strongly  the  wrongs  done  her  own  sex  and 
herself.  Individual  injustice,  of  course,  caused  the  book's 
conception,  and  is  the  guiding  principle  which  makes  the 
lady's  life-work  as  is  set  forth.  The  volume  is  crammed 
full  of  truth,  and,  to  a  just  man,  altogether  unpalatable 
truth.  In  her  preface,  the  author  gives  the  reasons  for 
her  entering  upon  the  war  against  the  injustice  of  probate 
laws  in  this  country,  especially  in  California,  where  her 
personal  grievances  were  experienced.  She  points  out 
that  the  widow  is  protected  by  the  law  less  than  most 
criminals  ;  that  courts  of  justice,  as  far  as  widows  are  con- 
cerned, are  worse  than  the  "  circumlocution-office  ;  "  that 
the  judges,  lawyers,  and  executors  are  more  than  often 
only  the  "Barnacles"  who  live  on  the  plunder  or  "ex- 
penses" which  are  wrung  out  of  the  widow  and  the  fa- 


374  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

therless.  Widows  are  treated  as  rebels  are  in  time  of 
rebellion.  Confiscation  is  often  the  lot  of  both.  The 
running  account  of  her  own  trials  and  troubles  after  the 
death  of  her  husband,  the  natural  and  passionately  indig- 
nant comments  on  the  manner  in  which  she  was  treated, 
citation  of  like  examples  of  unjust  legislation,  and  depic- 
tion of  the  manner  in  which  a  woman  is  too  frequently 
treated  in  court  and  in  public,  make  up  "the  volume's  con- 
tents. We  imagine  that  a  quieter  temper,  less  open  and 
avowed  and  hearty  indignation,  would  have  given  the 
work  more  influence  in  some  places  and  upon  some  minds  ; 
but  Mrs.  S  tow's  writings  are  marked  by  so  much  honesty 
and  so  much  vigor,  that  a  Jesuitical  or  politic  course  would 
seem  unnatural.  She  goes  to  the  root  of  matters,  as  far 
as  her  experience  shows  her  t^e  way ;  and  when  she  has  a 
hard  name  to  call  she  does  not  mince  matters,  but  "  speaks 
right  out."  The  work  is  an  engine,  an  instrument  in  a 
crusade  which  the  author  has  undertaken,  —  a  war  which 
she  opens  single-handed,  but  in  which  she  is  sure  to  be  soon 
surrounded  with  earnest  followers.  The  volume  deserves 
to  be  read  ;  for  it  touches  upon  subjects  which  ought  to  lie 
close  to  the  heart  of  every  father  and  mother,  every  hus- 
band and  wife,  in  the  land.  No  loving  father  wishes  to 
leave  his  children  unprovided  for  and  homeless  ;  no  loving 
husband,  his  wife  to  be  worried  to  death  in  the  courts,  ap- 
pealing and  begging  for  what  no  one,  not  even  judges, 
denies  to  be  her  honest  right.  It  has  been  a  pleasure  to 
read  a  book  with  such  snap  and  point  to  it,  and  all  who 
take  it  up  will  probably  agree  with  us. 


EXTRACTS  FROM  REVIEWS  OF  THE  PRESS.       375 


["  Daily  Post,"  Boston.] 

Mrs.  J.  W.  Stow  of  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  has  written 
and  published  a  work  on  probate  law,  which  should  be 
carefully  read,  for  it  touches  upon  a  vital  question,  —  the 
rights  of  the  widow  and  the  fatherless.  The  expose  of 
iniquities  practised  under  cover  of  law  is  vividly  por- 
trayed in  the  pages  of  "Probate  Confiscation.'*  Mrs. 
Stow  proposes  to  visit  every  State  in  the  Union,  with  the 
determination  to  enlighten  public  opinion  upon  the  neces- 
sity of  a  revision  of  the  entire  probate  system,  as  far  as  it 
relates  to  widows'  estates  left  by  their  deceased  husbands. 
Whatever  good  she  ma}7  be  able  to  accomplish,  in  her  war- 
fare against  injustice,  will  be  a  godsend  to  those  who 
would  otherwise  suffer  under  probate  absorption,  as  she 
has  suffered. 

["Woman's  Journal,"  Boston,  Mass.] 

The  book  is  an  indignant  protest  against,  and  exposure 
of,  the  Probate-Court  system,  and  of  the  special  court 
through  which  Mrs.  Stow  herself  suffered  gross  injustice 
and  wrong.  The  volume  is  almost  fierce  in  its  delinea- 
tions and  execrations  of  the  probate  system.  The  work 
has  a  decided  value  over  and  above  the  personal  case  of 
Mrs.  Stow,  which  it  details,  because  it  calls  attention  to 
a  great  s}rstem  of  wrong  which  exists  in  every  State,  and 
which  cannot  bear  the  light  of  day.  If  every  wronged 
widow  had  the  ability  to  write  a  book,  and  give  all  the 
facts  to  the  public,  and  the  means  to  publish  it,  the  very 
exposure  would  go  far  to  correct  existing  abuses.  Mrs. 
Stow  has  done  a  good  service  in  this  direction.  The  book 
should  be  widely  read. 


376  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

["Eastern  Argus,"  Portland,  Me.] 

Among  the  many  books  that  are  written  to  please  and 
entertain,  with  occasionally  one  to  instruct,  it  is  pleasant 
to  find  one  written  with  a  purpose  by  one  who  has  suffered 
oppression  and  wrong,  whose  whole  nature  cries  out 
against  it,  and  who  takes  this  method  of  righting  what 
seems  to  her  to  be  a  wholly  iniquitous  and  outrageous  con- 
dition of  things.  Such  a  book  is  4 i  Probate  Confiscation. ' ' 
Some  people  may  find  fault  with  it,  for  the  radical  style  in 
which  it  is  written ;  but  the  work  has  the  merit  of  frank- 
ness and  sincere  conviction,  and  of  going  directly  to  the 
point.  It  should  be  read  to  be  appreciated. 

["  Portland  Daily  Advertiser,"  Me.] 

Mrs.  J.  "W.  Stow  of  San  Francisco  has  written  and 
published  a  book  entitled  "Probate  Confiscation,"  in 
which  she  brings  forward  and  holds  up  to  view  the*  mis- 
chievous features  of  the  sj^stem  of  law,  by  which  the  set- 
tling, by  the  Probate  Court,  of  dead  men's  estates,  is  made 
to  result  in  unnecessary  hardship  and  wrong  to  those  most 
interested,  —  the  widow  and  children.  Mrs.  Stow  had  a 
bitter  probate  experience,  which  set  her  to  thinking.  She 
found  plenty  of  other  women  suffering  in  the  same  way. 
She  found  that  while  a  man  losing  his  wife  is  allowed 
to  manage  the  ruins  of  his  home,  with  his  and  her  property 
and  children,  as  suits  him  best,  —  is  not  dragged  through 
the  Probate  Courts,  not  obliged  to  see  his  property  filched 
from  him  by  any  process  of  law,  —  at  the  same  time  a 
woman  losing  her  husband  loses  also  every  thing  ;  control 
of  her  home,  property,  children,  —  even  of  her  unborn 
child,  if  her  husband  chooses  to  appoint  a  guard  inn  for  il 


EXTRACTS  FROM  REVIEWS  OF  THE  PRESS.       377 

in  advance,  — and  is  left  quite  at  the  mercy  of  strangers, 
who  are  either  coldly  indifferent  or  selfishly  interested. 
She  found,  too,  that,  where  there  are  half-orphans,  it  is 
only  in  case  of  maternal  rights  that  an  overwhelming  anxi- 
ety seizes  upon  legislators.  They  take  precautions  for  the 
children  against  the  mother,  which  are  not  considered  ne- 
cessary against  the  father. 

Mrs.  Stow  believes  that  marriage  should  be  an  equal 
civil  contract,  and  equally  binding  on  both  parties ;  that 
the  common  property  should  belong  as  much  to  the  one  as 
the  other  ;  that  a  man  should  deal  as  honestly  and  openly 
with  his  wife  as  with  his  business  partner  ;  and  that  there 
can  never  be  true  harmony  or  friendship  between  husband 
and  wife,  so  long  as  one  is  made  by  law  dependent  on  the 
whim  of  the  other  in  life  and  after  death.  Many  a  woman 
has  found  the  rule  of  a  living  master  hard  enough  to  bear, 
even  though  a  living  master  may  be  softened  by  the  humil- 
ity, tenderness,  and  faithfulness  of  his  subject.  But  harder 
still,  in  many  unvoiced  instances,  has  she  found  the  reign 
of  a  dead  ruler,  whom  no  tears  nor  prayers  nor  deserving 
can  win  or  conciliate,  or  prevail  upon.  To  impress  these 
things  on  the  public  mind,  to  draw  attention  to  these  and 
kindred  hardships  under  which  women  suffer  under  the 
law,  Mrs.  Stow  has  written  her  book,  and  inaugurated  a 
single-handed  crusade  against  a  sex-despotism,  which  is 
deserving  all  praise.  May  a  merited,  success  crown  her 
efforts ! 

["  The  Daily  Patriot,"  Concord,  N.H.] 

4  4  Probate  Confiscation  "  is  a  book  written  with  a  pur- 
pose, as  its  title  would  indicate,  by  one  who  has  suffered 
oppre.'-sion  and  wrong,  and  who,  having  failed  to  receive 


378  PROBATE   CONFISCATION. 

redress  in  the  courts,  has  appealed  to  the  public,  hoping  to 
effect  a  reform  which  will  enable  others  who  may  be  simi- 
larly situated  to  escape  her  sad  experience.  She  claims 
that  the  laws  affecting  the  family  relations  should  be  as 
familiar  to  every  one  as  household  words ;  that  an  un- 
justifiable ignorance  is  the  cause  of  the  piv>rnt  U-jial 
status  of  wives  and  widows.  Her  lively  book  will  cer- 
tainly awaken  thought  and  discussion  upon  the  subject. 
She  makes  a  stirring  appeal  for  the  protection  of  tin- 
widow  and  the  fatherless;  and  all  right  -mi  inU-d  people 
must  sympathize  with  her  earnest  effort  in  tlu-ir  In-half. 
The  book  is  sold  only  by  subscription,  and  by  the  author 
herself.  Mrs.  Stow  comes  to  us  as  a  brave,  courageous 
woman  of  high  respectability,  and  will  be  cordially  wel- 
comed by  every  true  friend  of  the  sex. 

["  Free  Press  and  Times,"  Burlington,  Vt.] 
Mrs.  J.  W.  Stow,  author  of  "Probate  Confiscation," 
has  undertaken  to  procure  a  change  of  the  probate  laws 
of  every  State  in  the  Union,  and  of  the  laws  affecting  the 
property  of  women  generally.  Her  book  is  written  with  a 
very  free  pen,  and  is  typographically  a  very  handsome  vol- 
ume. She  is  canvassing  for  it  in  person  ;  her  object  being 
not  only  to  support  herself,  but  to  procure  a  fund  for 
establishing  horticultural  colleges  for  women.  The  list 
of  subscribers  to  her  work  contains  the  names  of  many 
distinguished  philanthropists,  literary  gentlemen,  legisla- 
tors, and  private  citizens,  in  other  States ;  and  she  will 
doubtless  add  many  to  the  number  in  Vermont. 

["  Hartford  Daily  Courant,"  Conn.] 

Mrs.  J.  W.  Stow  of  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  has  written 
and  published  a  book  on  the  inequalities  of  probate  law 


EXTRACTS  FROM  REVIEWS  OF  THE  PRESS.       379 

Her  purpose  is,  broadly,  to  improve  the  condition  of 
woman  in  respect  to  property  rights  ;  and  in  this  she  will 
have  the  sympathy  of  all  right-minded  men.  When  a  man 
and  woman  together  accumulate  property,  he  by  labor  out- 
doors and  she  by  equally  necessary  labor  and  care  of  house 
and  famity,  there  is  no  reason  why  the  wife  should  not 
have  an  equal  voice  in  disposing  of  it.  The  agitation  of 
the  whole  subject  is  of  great  importance ;  and  one  who 
brings  hidden  truths  to  light  should  be  sustained  and  en- 
couraged in  the  laudable  effort.  Mrs.  Stow  has  also 
another  object.  She  hopes,  from  the  sale  of  her  lively 
book,  subscriptions,  and  donations,  to  raise  monej7  to  es- 
tablish colleges  of  horticulture  for  women.  Both  are 
praiseworth}T,  —  one  to  give  women  more  protection  in  law, 
the  other  to  give  them  a  new  and  congenial  employment. 

["  Evening  Post,"  Hartford,  Conn.] 

Mrs.  Stow  appears  in  defence  of  a  grand  principle. 
"  Probate  Confiscation  "  is  a  work  of  merit  and  value,  and 
it  has  an  important  mission  in  the  world. 

["  Daily  Journal,"  Providence,  R.I.] 

We  have  received  from  the  author,  Mrs.  J.  W.  Stow, 
1  'Probate  Confiscation,"  second  edition,  revised  and  en- 
larged. It  is  a  book  which  claims  careful  consideration. 
If  Mrs.  Stow  writes  in  strong,  plain  language,  she  seems 
to  be  justified  by  her  fruitless  efforts  to  obtain,  under  the 
sanction  of  the  laws,  that  portion  of  her  husband's  estate 
which  belonged  to  her  at  the  time  of  her  marriage,  and 
that  fair  and  equitable  allotment  in  the  distribution  of  his 
separate  property  which  should  belong  to  her  after  his 
death.  Her  case  is  certainly  a  hard  one  ;  and  her  book 


380  PROBATE  CONFISCATION. 

clearly  demonstrates,  that,  in  the  present  administration 
of  justice,  woman  has  not  always  an  equitable  share.  If 
the  laws  are  founded  in  charity  as  well  as  wisdom,  their 
execution  should  be  made  to  agree  with  individual  as  well 
as  public  rights. 

["The  Providence  Press,"  B.I.] 

Mrs.  Stow  is  the  widow  of  a  San  Francisco  gentleman 
of  wealth,  who,  while  upon  his  death-bed  and  in  the  ab- 
sence of  his  wife  in  Europe,  made  disposition  of  the  joint 
property  of  both.  Prima  facie  it  was  an  unjust  will,  and 
such  as  Mr.  Stow  in  health,  and  surrounded  by  his  family, 
would  not  have  made.  Through  great  trials  and  perplexi- 
ties the  widow  arrived  at  her  home  in  San  Francisco,  to 
find  her  affairs  in  the  hands  of  the  Probate  Court,  with 
executors  inimical  to  her  interests.  The  .court  knew  no 
mercy  ;  it  only  knew  law;  and  the  widow  was  forced  by  the 
injustice  which  she  suffered  to  examine  the  whole  subject 
of  estates  and  probates  from  both  a  legal  and  equitable 
view.  Mrs.  Stow  is  smart  enough  to  do  the  whole  subject 
justice,  fearless  enough  to  tell  the  whole  truth,  and  has 
suffered  enough  to  make  her  arraignment  of  the  laws  and 
processes  of  probate  stinging  and  terrible.  It  is  one  of 
the  severest  arraignments  we  ever  read. 

We  have  long  been  of  the  opinion  that  this  whole  chain 
of  laws  and  processes  for  the  settlement  of  estates  of  de- 
ceased persons  is  a  relic  of  barbarism ;  that  it  had  its 
source  in  the  theocratic  government  of  Judaism,  which 
denied  woman — mothers,  sisters,  wives,  and  daughters 
—  all  rights  except  the  mere  right  to  live  without  being 
murdered.  While  the  progress  of  society  has  been  marked 
in  many  respects,  and  woman  in  the  social  sphere  has 


EXTRACTS  FROM  REVIEWS  OF  THE  PRESS.       381 

arisen  to  her  proper  dignity  and  crowning,  yet  in  legal 
rights  she  has  advanced  but  little.  The  laws  are  against 
her  ;  and  there  is  force  in  the  argument  that  it  is  because 
she  has  no  voice  in  the  making  of  laws  to  which  she  must 
submit,  and  by  which  she  is  often  abused  and  oppressed. 
If  women  could  assist  in  the  making  of  the  probate  laws, 
especially,  there  would  be  less  suffering  of  widows,  less 
separation  of  families,  and  less  of  unwelcome  guardianship 
of  orphans  whose  mothers  are  by  nature  and  the  laws  of 
God  their  natural  guardians.  The  law  stands,  in  many 
cases,  for  the  rankest  injustice.  At  the  death  of  a  hus- 
band, the  joint  family  property  is  ruled,  controlled,  taxed, 
wasted,  and  made  a  legal  plaything  for  courts  and  inter- 
ested parties  to  deplete  "  according  to  law."  The  probate 
business,  and  the  law  which  governs  it  in  our  own  State, 
need  revision  badly.  If  Mrs.  Stow  can  awaken  an  inter- 
est in  this  subject  by  her  book,  we  bid  her  God  speed. 

DEC.  19, 1877. 


AN  ACT 


THE  PROTECTION  OF  WIDOWS, 


COMPARATIVE    LAW. 


BY  -MRS.  J.  W.  STOW. 


SECTION  1.  That,  in  all  marriages  hereafter  contracted, 
life  and  property  shall  enter  into  the  union,  unless  the  latter 
is  protected  by  special  contract;  and  the  joint  estate  thus 
formed,  together  with  the  added  accumulations  during  wed- 
lock, shall  be  known  as  common  property.  Separate  estates 
protected  by  ante-nuptial  contracts,  legacies,  gifts,  and  bequests, 
shall  constitute  the  private  property  of  each,  which  shall  be 
exempt  from  the  debts,  crimes,  or  torts  of  the  other. 

SECT.  2.  At  the  death  of  either  husband  or  wife,  the  sur- 
vivor shall  actually  own  —  after  the  payment  of  all  debts  — 
half  of  the  common  property,  and  enjoy  the  use  of  the  other 
half  during  life,  unless  a  re-marriage  takes  place.  In  that 
event  the  estate  shall  be  divided,  one-half  going  to  the  children, 
or  other  heirs-at-law  where  there  are  no  children,  unless  other- 
wise ordained  by  the  testator.  No  testament  placed  over  the 
common  property,  by  the  deceased,  shall  take  effect  until  after 
the  death  of  the  surviving  partner,  if  he  or  she  remain  single. 

SECT.  3.  All  debts  or  claims  against  the  joint  estate  shall 
be  settled  by  the  survivor,  subject  to  the  same  law  which  regu- 
lates a  copartnership  existing  between  two  persons  when  one 
of  them  dies. 

1 


2         AN  ACT  FOR  THE  PROTECTION  OF   WIDOWS. 

SECT.  4.  Fathers  and  mothers  shall  have  equal  rights  of 
succession  to  the  property  of  their  own  unmarried  children 
who  die  intestate. 

SECT.  5.  Only  in  case  of  separation  shall  each  claim  all  of 
his  or  her  separate  property  and  an  equal  share  of  the  joint 
estate  accumulated  during  wedlock. 

SECT.  6.  The  survivor  shall  have  the  sole  guardianship  of 
his  or  her  own  children. 

SECT.  7.  A  homestead  not  exceeding  the  value  of  a  thou- 
sand dollars,  created  from  the  unembarrassed  common  fund, 
shall  belong  to  the  survivor,  exempt  from  all  claims  made  by 
creditors,  with  the  exception  of  a  mortgagee. 

I  MAINTAIN  that  women  earn  money  in  wedlock. 
No  city  husband  would  like  to  exchange  his  position 
as  the  "  money-getter  "  for  the  never-ending  cares  of 
the  household.  Placing  the  wife  in  the  light  of  a 
companion,  or  superintendent  only,  still,  I  say,  she 
earns  money  in  excess  of  her  board  and  clothes. 
It  is  an  absurd  idea  that  a  wife  is  supported  by  the 
husband.  His  feeding  and  clothing  her  is  but  a 
fraction  of  what  is  hers  by  right.  I  cannot  find  a 
lady  companion,  who  is  my  peer  in  education  and 
social  position,  who  will  perform  her  duties  faithfully 
for  simply  her  board  and  clothes ;  and  that  is  all  a 
wife  gets.  True,  a  widow  gets  a  miserable  third; 
but  every  wife  is  not  sure  of  being  a  widow.  Num- 
bers of  noble  men  say  to  me,  "  I  have  willed  every 
thing  to  my  wife.  >If  she  does  not  do  right  by  her 
children,  who  will?"  And  when  I  say,  "But  if  she 
dies  first  she  cannot  will  away  any  of  the  property 
which  she  has  helped  to  earn,  —  a  pewter  spoon  nor 


AN  ACT  FOR   THE  PROTECTION   OF    WIDOWS.          3 

an  iron  toasting-fork," — they  answer,  "I  know  it ; 
and  it  is  a  legal  outrage  that  she  is  thus  deprived  o  ? 
her  rights." 

The  wife  of  a  farmer  works  harder,  and  many 
more  hours,  than  he  does ;  and  she  makes  the  butter 
and  cheese,  and  raises  the  poultry,  which  brings  in 
the  ready  money ;  and  yet  at  his  death  she  has,  by 
law,  only  the  use  of  a  starvation  third  of  the  farm. 
She  cannot  sell  it,  and  make  herself  comfortable  in 
her  old  age.  To  be  sure,  her  husband,  Smith,  may 
will  her  the  use  of  the  entire  farm  if  she  does  not 
marry  Jones ;  but  if  she  does  (Smith  detests  Jones) 
she  shall  be  cut  off  with  nothing,  for  in  that  case 
she  forfeits  her  "  thirds."  This  is  a  wise  law,  made 
by  wise  men,  for  the  "protection  "  of  unwise  women. 
Then,  as  superintendent  of  the  household :  I  know 
men-superintendents  who  get  all  the  way  from  two 
hundred  to  two  thousand  dollars  a  month  for  ser- 
vices not  half  as  onerous  as  a  wife's  often  are.  Her 
duties  are  priceless.  No  money  value  can  be  set 
upon  them.  Therefore,  I  say,  she  ought  to  have  the 
conceded  right  to  devise  half  of  the  estate  gathered 
during  coverture,  this  testament  to  take  effect  at  the 
re-marriage  or  death  of  her  widower.  This  is  simple, 
even-handed  justice.  The  home  and  property  should 
no  more  be  broken  up  when  a  husband  dies  out  of  it 
than  when  a  wife  dies  out  of  it.  The  loss  of  the 
husband  and  father  is  grief  enough  without  the 
added  loss  of  home  and  fortune. 

But  it  is  said,  "  If  a  wife  is  to  legally  own  half  of 


4         AN  ACT  FOR  THE  PROTECTION  OF   WIDOWS. 

the  accumulations  of  wedlock,  there  will  have  to  be 
an  appraisement  of  property  before  marriage."  True  ; 
and  a  wiser  thing  could  not  happen.  This  would 
give  lovers  pause,  who  frantically  fall  in  love  one 
day,  marry  the  next,  and  divorce  the  day  after.  A 
financial  deception  on  either  side  is  a  mighty  love- 
cooler.  An  ante-nuptial  inventory  would  save  a 
world  of  heart-burnings  and  divorce-suits ;  for  "  Look 
before  you  leap"  is  not  proverbial  of  the  youthful 
American  in  the  first  —  or  second,  as  to  that  matter  — 
gush  of  the  divine  afflatus.  Such  a  law  would  give 
to  wives  a  feeling  of  security  which  is  above  pi 

It  is,  or  should  be,  a  very  humiliating  tiling  to  a 
woman  who  has  earned  all  the  way  from  fifty  to  ii\  <• 
hundred  dollars  a  month,  by  her  ability,  talents,  or 
accomplishments,  to  find  after  marriage  that  she  is 
leading  the  life  of  a  pauper,  as  the  law  has  it,  in 
being  "supported"  by  her  husband,  and  that  she  has 
to  beg  for  every  thing  she  has  like  a  mendicant. 
Any  system  that  should  place  a  man,  arrived  at  the 
maturity  of  his  bodily  and  mental  powers,  in  such  a 
state  of  subjection,  and  should  bind  him,  moreover, 
to  hard  labor  for  a  mere  maintenance,  would  be 
reckoned  a  monstrous  tyranny. 

What  is  the  origin  of  this  subjection,  this  labor 
without  pay?  In  what  soil  is  hidden  the  root  of 
this  flourishing  tree  ?  If  we  search  with  the  lighted 
candle  of  truth,  we  shall  find  it  in  the  substratum  of 
barbarism ;  in  the  ownership  of  wives ;  in  might,  not 
right ;  in  the  power  of  the  strong  over  the  weak. 


COMPARATIVE  LAW.  5 

Going  back  to  the  earliest  twilight  of  human 
society,  we  find  that  wives  were  first  won  by  capture, 
and  subjugated  with  a  bludgeon.  They  were  then 
simply  beasts  of  burden  to  their  masters ;  and,  as 
prisoners  of  war,  women  were  held  as  slaves  until 
ransomed,  or  wived,  —  which  was  but  another  form  of 
slavery.  Then  came  the  period  of  purchase,  when 
fathers  knocked  down  their  daughters  —  and  their 
wives  too,  if  they  could  find  purchasers  —  to  the 
highest  bidder.  A  man  in  purchasing  a  woman  for  a 
wife  knew  that  he  was  acquiring  a  creature  far  more 
valuable,  in  a  material  sense,  than  an  ordinary  slave. 
Still  he  grumbled  angrily  at  the  social  innovation 
which  wrested  from  him  his  natural  title  to  any  woman 
whom  he  was  strong  enough  to  seize  and  keep.  The 
symbol  of  the  husband's  domestic  rule  was  a  shoe ; 
and,  in  token  of  the  transfer  of  authority  over  the 
bride,  it  was  customary  for  the  father  to  present  the 
groom  with  that  ensign  of  power,  on  the  receipt  of 
which  he  became  the  absolute  owner  of  the  woman 
ho  had  wed.  She  was  as  much  his  property  as  his 
dog  or  his  horse.  No  one  can  fail  to  see  the  appro- 
priateness of  the  symbol,  when  used  to  mark  the 
transfer  of  degrading  power  over  a  human  creature. 
Tho  covering  of  the  foot  was  the  instrument  with 
which  a  victor  demonstrated  the  subjugation  of  a 
fallen  foe. 

Leading  on  came  the  era  of  infantile  wedlock, 
when  babes  and  sucklings  were  mated  in  the  cradle, 
ringed  in  the  nursery,  and  brought  to  the  church- 


6  COMPARATIVE  LAW. 

porch  with  lollipops  in  their  mouths.  And  the  worst 
feature  of  all  this  was,  that  when  they  had  grown  up 
into  men  and  women  they  were  powerless  to  free 
themselves  from  these  frightful  bonds.  Both  Church 
and  State,  in  the  quintessence  of  all  wisdom,  pro- 
tected, or  refused  to  annul,  these  disastrous  nuptials  ; 
thus  obliging  the  participants  to  dwell  together  in 
perpetual  discord  (for  they  were  rarely  well  mated), 
or  to  drag  out  a  miserable  life  of  celibacy. 

In  feudal  England  women  were  condemned  to  the 
perpetual  tutelage  of  parents,  husband,  or  guardian. 
A  sex  created  to  labor  and  obey  were  never  supposed 
to  have  attained  the  age  of  reason  mid  experience. 
They  were  classed  with  children,  criminals,  and  id; 
before  the  law  then,  as  they  are  to-day.  The  old 
common  law  gave  the  husband  a  right  to  govern  the 
wife  with  stripes  and  imprisonment,  while  the  civil 
law  permitted  him  to  beat  her  with  a  stick  the  size 
and  thickness  of  his  thumb. 

Investigators  who  have  studied  that  vaunted  period 
called  "the  age  of  chivalry,"  in  the  court-records 
and  law-books,  tell  us  that  respect  for  woman  is  a 
thing  of  which  those  records  show  no  trace.  In  the 
age  of  chivalry  the  widow  and  the  fatherless  were 
regarded  by  lords,  knights,  and  parsons  as  legitimate 
objects  of  plunder;  and  woe  to  the  widow  who  pros- 
ecuted the  murderers  of  her  husband  or  the  ravagers 
of  her  estate  1  The  homage  which  the  law  paid  to 
women  consisted  in  burning  them  alive  for  the 
offences  which  brought  upon  men  the  painless  death 
of  hanging. 


COMPARATIVE  LAW.  7 

Tracing  carefully  this  slowly-ascending  scale,  we 
arrive  at  "The  Mayflower,"  and  note  its  curious 
official  record,  which  forcibly  illustrates  the  value  set 
upon  women  by  the  Pilgrim  Fathers.  In  this  record 
we  find  so  many  men,  fifty  adults,  eighteen  of  whom 
are  marked  with  a  star.  Those  stars  represent  the 
women,  our  foremothers ;  and,  in  spite  of  the  mea- 
gre record,  they  proved  themselves  stars  of  the  first 
magnitude.  But  the  first  mention  of  women  is  made 
in  connection  with  clean  shirts  for  men.  The  witty 
chronicler  —  brevity  being  the  soul  of  wit — saith, 
"And  the  women  went  on  shore  to  wash,  of  which 
there  was  much  need." 

Mind  you,  this  was  after  the  ship  had  cast  an- 
chor in  the  harbor-bay.  Not  a  word  is  spoken  about 
their  kindly  ministrations  during  the  tempest-tossed 
voyage :  which,  to  my  way  of  thinking,  was  an 
unpardonable  oversight;  for  of  all  domesticated 
animals  man  is  the  most  exacting,  unreasonable,  and 
unmanageable,  when  suffering  from  sea-sickness. 

Up  to  a  comparatively  recent  date,  the  common 
law  has  been  the  governing  principle  of  all  English- 
speaking  peoples.  All  statutory  law  is  imperfect 
and  complicated,  being  made  up  of  patchwork  and 
shreds,  oftentimes  by  culpably  ignorant  legislators, 
whose  energies  would  have  been  better  conserved  in 
making  bricks  instead  of  laws. 

To  fortify  my  position,  I  will  quote  from  Gov 
Hubbard's  "message  "  to  the  Legislature  of  Connect- 
icut in  1877.  He  says,  "The  old  common  law  as- 


8  COMPARATIVE  LAW. 

sumed  the  subjugation  of  the  wife,  and  stripped  her 
of  the  better  part  of  her  rights  of  person,  and  nearly 
all  her  rights  of  property.  It  is  a  matter  of  aston- 
ishment, that  Christian  nations  should  have  been  will- 
ing, for  eighteen  centuries,  to  hold  the  mothers  of 
their  race  in  a  condition  of  legal  servitude.  It  has 
been  the  scandal  of  jurisprudence.  The  property- 
relations  of  husband  and  wife  do '  not  to-day  rest  on 
any  just  or  harmonious  system.  Not  only  has  the 
husband  absolute  disposal  of  all  his  own  property, 
freed  from  all  dower-rights,  but  he  is  pract  it-ally  the 
owner  during  coverture  of  all  his  wife's  estate  not 
specially  limited  to  her  separate  use;  and,  after  her 
death,  has,  in  every  case,  a  life-use  in  all  her  personal, 
and,  in  most  cases,  in  all  her  real  property,  by  a  title 
which  the  wife,  no  matter  what  may  have  ITCH  his 
ill-deserts,  is  powerless  to  impair  or  defeat :  whei 
on  the  other  hand,  the  wife  has,  during  her  husband's 
life,  no  more  power  of  her  own  right  to  sell,  com 
or  manage  her  own  estate,  than  if  she  were  a  luu. 
or  slave ;  and,  in  case  of  his  death,  has  a  life-use  in 
only  one  third  part  of  the  real  estate  of  which  he 
dies  possessed,  and  no  indefensible  title  whatever  in 
any  of  his  personal  estate.  As  a  consequence,  a 
husband  may  strip  his  wife,  by  mere  voluntary  dis- 
position to  strangers,  of  aU  claim  on  his  estate  after 
his  death,  and  thus  add  beggary  to  widowhood." 

Stirred  up  by  the  governor's  message  to  a  partial 
sense  of  the  injustice  to  wives,  the  Connecticut  Le- 
gislature passed  an  "act "for  the  protection  of  :lie 


COMPARATIVE  LAW.  9 

separate  property  and  the  earnings  (outside  of  the 
domestic  relations)  of  the  wife,  before  the  close  of 
the  session.  But  this  "act"  does  not  protect  the 
wife's  earnings  in  any  true  sense ;  for  whatever  she 
earns  in  the  service  of  the  husband  belongs  to  him 
absolutely.  Few  wives  earn  money  other  than  as 
the  servant  of  the  husband.  A  slave's  services  no 
more  belong  to  his  master  than  a  wife's  do  to  her 
husband,  in  all  labor  pertaining  to  the  household. 
She  marries  at  maturity,  and  spends  the  prime  of  her 
life  in  accumulating  a  fortune  in  which  she  owns  not 
a  farthing  legally  if  the  husband  survives  her.  At 
the  risk  of  life  and  health,  she  bears  his  children. 
Over  those  children  she  has  no  legal  control.  The 
father's  power  is  as  absolute  as  though  she  were 
dead.  She  works  more  hours  a  day  than  the  hired 
servant;  and,  were  that  labor  recompensed  as  the 
labor  of  single  women  is  recompensed,  it  would  in- 
sure her  a  handsome  support  for  her  old  age.  Yet 
the  law  offers  her  no  pretence,  even,  of  such  a  recom- 
pense ;  forgetting  the  old  maxim,  that  "  the  laborer 
is  worthy  of  his  hire."  There  is  not  a  State  in  the 
Union  where  a  woman,  as  wife,  earns  money  in  the 
domestic  service  of  her  own  household.  What  a 
shame  !  This  is  an  unpruned,  vigorous  branch  of  the 
old  common  law.  Get  out  the  pruning-hook  of 
progress,  and  lop  it  off.  It  has  outlived  its  day. 
Away  with  it ! 

In  Continental  Europe  the  hideous  barbarity  of  the 
old  common  law  has  long  since  disappeared.     In  the 


10  COMPARATIVE  LAW. 

Northern  countries,  —  Iceland  and  Denmark,  Nor- 
way and  Sweden,  — it  never  had  any  lasting  power. 
They  were  less  affected  by  Roman  or  canon  law  than 
either  Germany  or  France ;  and  owing  to  an  immo- 
bility of  customs,  which  seems  inherent  in  the  North, 
their  laws  have  undergone  no  considerable  change 
since  the  tenth  century.  It  is  refreshing  to  observe, 
that,  at  a  very  early  period  in  the  North,  the  position 
of  woman  conformed  in  more  than  one  relation  to 
many  of  the  requirements  of  modern  reformers.  She 
had  a  legal  right  to  her  own  person  and  property ; 
while  in  Scotland,  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  it  is  the  first  principle  of  law,  that  a 
married  woman  has  no  existence  therein.  In  regard 
to  survivorship,  there  was  no  aristocracy  of  sex.  A 
widow  became  the  sole  manager  of  the  community- 
property,  and  guardian  of  the  children. 

A  German  wife,  under  the  most  usual  marriage- 
law, —  the  community  system,  where  life  and  prop- 
erty both  enter  into  the  union,  —  has  equal  rights 
with  her  husband  over  the  property  of  both,  irre- 
spective of  its  nature ;  and  she  is  nearly  equal  with 
him  as  regards  succession.  At  the  death  of  either, 
the  survivor  succeeds  to  half  the  common  fund,  and 
has  the  use  of  the  other  half  for  life.  In  every  way 
a  German  wife  enjoys  a  much  greater  equality  in 
property  rights  with  her  husband  than  a  wife  does 
in  England  or  in  the  United  States.  The  old  feudal 
preference  for  males  has  been  nearly  obliterated, 
excepting  in  the  noble  and  peasant  lines,  where  it 
still  gives  a  couleur  de  rose  to  legal  transactions. 


COMPARATIVE   LAW.  11 

Under  the  Roman  dota*.  system,  as  it  exists  in  Ger- 
many, at  marriage  each  makes  the  other  a  bridal  gift, 
from  his  or  her  property,  known  as  dowry  and  nup- 
tial donation.  In  case  of  neglect  or  desertion,  the 
wife  can  demand  maintenance  from  both ;  and,  if  the 
husband  becomes  bankrupt,  she  is  still  entitled  to 
both,  free  from  all  claims  made  by  creditors.  How 
much  more  humane  this  law  is  than  one  that  permits 
real  or  imaginary  creditors  to  swoop  down  like  vul- 
tures, and  carry  off  every  thing  in  their  legal  talons, 
while  the  widow  and  babes  are  left  to  starve,  or  be- 
come objects  of  charity,  as  the  probate  system  per- 
mits them  to  do,  under  certain  conditions,  in  this  our 
beloved  land  of  freedom,  progress,  and  enlighten- 
ment! 

In  France  a  husband  can  will  but  half  of  the  legal 
community ;  and  in  case  of  separation  the  wife's  claim 
on  the  general  fund  is  superior  to  that  of  any  mort- 
gagee or  creditor  made  subsequent  to  the  marriage, 
for  she  has  what  is  called  a  legal  hypothique  thereon. 
The  funeral  expenses  she  may  incur  for  her  husband 
are  at  the  charge  of  his  heirs,  while  he  cannot  charge 
the  common  fund.  This  rule  is  of  Roman  origin, 
where  husbands  are  not  bound  to  mourn  for  their 
wives.  The  reason  for  the  French  custom  probably 
is,  that  mourning  is  less  expensive  to  husbands  than 
to  wives ;  for,  whilst  a  widower  need  only  mourn  for 
liis  wife  six  months,  a  widow  must  mourn  for  her 
husband  thirteen  and  a  half. 

As  widow,  a  French  mother  has  full  control  of  her 


12  COMPARATIVE  LAW. 

children's  education  :  she  alone  can  oppose  or  consent 
to  their  marriage  ;  she  has  the  use  of  their  property, 
and  can  appoint  them  a  guardian  by  will.  A  lather 
cannot  deprive  a  mother  of  the  guardianship  of  her 
children.  Compare  this  with  our  law,  where  a 
mother  can  in  no  case  appoint  a  guardian  by  will, 
when  the  father  is  living ;  and  where  she  can  only 
act  as  guardian,  if  the  husband  has  appointed  no 
other,  and  she  continues  unmarried. 

Here  are  the  views  of  Col.  T.  W.  Higginson  on 
this  subject,  taken  from  "  The  Woman's  Journal "  of 
Nov.  24,  1877:  UA  Rhode-Island  lady  came  to  me 
in  great  indignation,  the  other  day,  asking  if  it  was 
true,  that,  under  Rhode-Island  laws,  a  husband  might 
by  his  last  will  bequeath  his  child  away  fnnn   its 
mother,  so  that  she  might,  if  the  guardian   el 
never  see  it  again.     I  replied  that  it  was  undoubtedly 
true,  and  that  such  was  the  law  in  most  of  the  St; 
of  the  Union. 

"'But,'  she  said,  4it  is  an  outrage.  The  hu>bund 
may  have  been  one  of  the  worst  men  in  tin-  world; 
he  may  have  persecuted  his  wife  and  children;  he 
may  have  made  the  will  in  a  moment  of  anger,  and 
have  neglected  to  alter  it.  At  any  rate,  lie  is  dead, 
and  the  mother  is  living.  The  guardian  whom  he 
appointed  may  turn  out  a  very  malicious  man,  and 
may  take  pleasure  in  torturing  the  mother;  or  he 
may  bring  up  the  children  in  a  way  their  mother 
thinks  ruinous  for  them.  Why  do  not  all  the  moth- 
ers cry  out  against  such  a  law  ? ' 


COMPARATIVE  LAW.  13 

" '  I  wish  they  would,'  I  said.  '  I  have  been  trying  a 
good  many  years  to  make  them  even  understand  what 
the  law  is ;  but  they  do  not.  People  who  do  not  vote 
pay  no  attention  to  the  laws  until  they  suffer  from 
them.' )!  The  actual  text  of  the  law  is  as  follows :  — 

"Ev6ry  person  authorized  to  make  a  will,  except  married 
women,  shall  have  a  right  to  appoint  by  his  will  a  guardian  or 
guardians  for  his  children  during  their  minority  "  (Gen.  Statutes 
R.  I.,  chap.  154,  §1). 

There  is  not  associated  with  this,  in  the  statutes,  the 
slightest  clause  in  favor  of  the  mother,  nor  any  thing 
which  could  limit  the  power  of  the  guardian  in  respect 
to  her,  although  he  could  in  certain  extreme  cases  be 
removed  by  the  court,  and  another  guardian  ap- 
pointed. There  is  not  a  line  of  positive  law  to  pro- 
teat  her.  Now,  in  a  case  of  absolute  wrong,  a  single 
sentence  of  law  is  worth  all  the  chivalrous  courtesy 
this  side  of  the  middle  ages. 

It  is  idle  to  say  that  such  laws  are  not  executed. 
They  are  executed.  I  have  had  letters,  too  agonizing 
to  print,  expressing  the  sufferings  of  mothers  under 
laws  like  these.  There  lies  before  me  a  letter  —  not 
from  Rhode  Island  —  written  by  a  widowed  mother 
who  suffers  daily  tortures,  even  while  in  possession  of 
her  child,  at  the  knowledge  that  it  is  not  legally  hers, 
but  held  only  by  the  permission  of  the  guardian  ap- 
pointed under  her  husband's  will.  "  I  beg  you,"  she 
says,  "  to  take  this  will  to  the  hill-top,  and  urge  law- 
makers in  our  next  Legislature  to  free  the  State 


14  COMPARATIVE  LAW. 

record  from  the  shameful  story,  that  no  mother  can 
control  her  child  unless  it  is  born  out  of  wedlock." 

"From  the  moment,"  she  says,  "when  the  will  was 
read  to  me,  I  have  made  no  effort  to  sel  it  aside.  I 
wait  till  God  reveals  his  plans,  so  far  as  my  own  con- 
dition is  concerned.  But  out  of  my  keen  compre- 
hension of  this  great  wrong,  notwithstanding  my 
submission  for  myself,  my  whole  soul  is  >tirrcd, —  fur 
my  child,  who  is  a  little  woman;  for  all  women.— 
that  the  laws  may  be  changed  which  subject  u  true 
woman,  a  devoted  wife,  a  faithful  mother,  to  such 
mental  agonies  as  I  have  endured,  and  shall  endure 
till  I  die. " 

In  a  later  letter  she  says,  "I  now  have  his  [the 
guardian's]  solemn  promise  that  he  will  not  ivir 
her  from  my  control.     To  some  extent,  my  sufier; 
are  allayed;  and  yet  never,  till  she  arrives  at  the  a»ge 
of  twenty-one,  shall  I  fully  trust  the  word  of  her 
father's  blood.      I  wish  that  mothers  who  dwell  in 
sheltered  and  happy  homes  would  try  to  brini^   to 
their  minds  the  condition  of  a  mother  whose  po- 
sion  of  her  only  child  rests  upon  the  4  promise '  of 
a  comparative  stranger.     We  should  then  get  beyond 
the  meaningless  cry,  4I  have  all  the  rights  I  want/ 
if  mothers  could  only  remember  that  among  these 
rights,  in  most  States  of  the  Union,  the  right  of  a 
widowed  mother  to  her  child  is  not  included." 

How  different  all  this  is  in  France,  and  other  Con- 
tinental countries,  where  fathers  and  mothers  share 
that  control  over  their  children  which  the  law  of 


COMPARATIVE  LAW.  15 

force  once  assigned  to  the  fathers  alone  ;  and  which, 
alai^I  is  still  extant  in  both  England  and  America. 
There  are  cases  in  this  enlightened  Christian  federa- 
tion, where  widows  are  treated,  under  the  cover  of 
law,  far  more  rigorously  than  criminals  are.  At  the 
death  of  their  husbands  they  are  stripped  of  their  for- 
tune and  the  guardianship  of  their  children ;  and  yet 
this  nation  boasts  of  its  civilization. 

There  is  one  point  of  law  in  which  the  French  Code, 
and  those  that  have  been  modelled  upon  it,  stand  in 
marked  superiority  to  the  laws  of  other  countries 
that  are  still  enamoured  of  traditional  inequalities. 
This  is  in  respect  to  wills  and  succession.  m  All  differ- 
ence of  privilege  between  the  sexes  was  destroyed  by 
the  Revolution,  and  by  its  best  fruit,  the  Code  Napo- 
Idon. 

In  England  a  wife  is  still  practically  unable  to 
make  a  will ;  and  in  this  country,  as  we  have  shown, 
she  cannot  legally  will  away  a  hair-pin  nor  a  tooth- 
pick unless  she  has  purchased  them  with  separate 
estate,  or  with  money  earned  outside  of  the  domestic 
relations.  But  it  is  expressly  laid  down  in  the  Code, 
that  a  wife  can  make  a  will  without  the  authorization 
of  the  husband ;  and,  in  case  of  intestate  succession, 
there  is  no  difference  between  sons  and  daughters, 
or  between  paternal  and  maternal  ascendants. 

Compare  this  with  our  law  in  some  of  the  States, 
where,  if  an  unmarried  child  dies  intestate,  his  or  her 
property  ascends  to  its  father ;  arid  if  he  be  dead,  then 
it  goes  in  equal  shares  to  its  mother,  brothers,  and 


16  COMPARATIVE  LAW. 

sisters.  She  who  has  borne  and  reared  the  child 
has  a  fraction  with  the  other  children.  This  equitable 
law  ought  to  court  and  wed  a  widow's  SUBLIMI: 
THIRDS  ! 

The  Italian  Code  follows  closely  those  principle's 
of  natural  justice  which  were  the  offspring  of  the 
French  Revolution,  and  the  glory  of  its  Code.  An 
Italian  wife  is  an  independent  woman  in  a  luish 
point  of  view.  She  can  validly  make  creditors  and 
contracts  on  her  own  account,  independent  of  judicial 
or  marital  control;  and,  with  regard  to  survivor- 
ship, there  remains  no  stigma  of  sex  distinction  in  the 
Italian  Code. 

The  present  legal  status  of  women  in  Italy  is  most 
encouraging;   for,  before  the  Code  was  made,  they 
occupied  generally  in  the  peninsula  a  very  low  j 
tion.     But,  now  that  the  legal  cerements  are  cast  off, 
a  new  life  of  useful  activity  invites  them  onward. 

"The  best  criterion  of  the  condition  of  nations 
is  their  written  laws." 

Thus  we  find  that  Continental  countries  enjoying 
the  highest  civilization  have  erased  from  their  laws 
the  rude  relics  of  antiquity,  and  adjusted  the  legal 
status  of  wives  and  widows  in  regard  to  property, 
so  it  compares  favorably  with  the  general  enlighten-' 
ment  of  the  age,  leaving  England  and  the  United 
States  far  behind  in  this  respect.  For  the  condition 
of  women  in  English  law  is  worse  than  it  is  in  any 
other  portion  of  Europe;  while  with  us,  whether 
legally  or  socially,  there  is  one  law  for  men,  and 


COMPARATIVE    LAW.  17 

another  for  women.  The  principles  of  law  are  the 
same  in  the  two  countries,  and  thus  they  will  remain 
until  men  have  the  courage  to  arraign  all  effete 
customs  and  hereditary  barbarisms  at  the  bar  of 
liberty. 

The  legal  inferiority  of  women  does  not  result 
from  any  law  of  nature,  or  from  any  inherent  neces- 
sity of  things :  it  is  simply  a  legislative  creation,  and 
capable,  therefore,  of  legislative  alteration.  For  the 
disabilities  of  one  country  are  restricted  or  absent 
in  another ;  and  the  comparison  of  different  countries 
gives  us  not  only  a  practical  ideal  for  the  possible 
range  of  our  reforms,  but  a  refuge  as  well  from  those 
taunts  of  Utopianism  which  are  often  so  potent 
a  weapon  in  the  hands  of  the  indifferent  or  unin- 
structed. 

In  the  States  that  were  first  settled  by  Continental 
immigration,  we  find  a  much  larger  liberality  accorded 
to  wives  and  widows,  in  property  rights,  under  the 
law.  A  California  widow  gets  -  if  it  is  not  stolen 
from  her  by  executors  and  courts  —  half  of  the  prop- 
erty both  real  and  personal  where  there  are  children ; 
and  where  there  are  none  she  becomes  the  first  heir 
of  the  husband's  estate,  and  gets  another  fourth,  that 
is,  if  he  died  intestate.  And  the  same  equality  of  rights 
in  the  common  property  is  maintained  in  some  of  the 
Western  States.  A  widow  is  not  turned  out  of  doors 
at  the  end  of  forty  days  on  a  starvation  "third." 
Still  there  is  no  intrinsic  justice  here ;  for,  if  a  wife 
dies,  she  cannot  devise  a  sixpence  out  of  her  half  that 


18  COMPARATIVE    LAW. 

will  stand  the  white-heat  of  the  crucible  of  law  made 
by  chivalric  man  for  her  protection.  In  the  State  of 
Louisiana,  there  is  a  just  and  equal  rule  of  succession 
between  husband  and  wife;  the  fundamental  idea 
being  that  of  the  settlement  of  the  affairs  of  a 
business  firm  upon  the  death  of  one  of  the  part- 
ners. The  capital  originally  contributed  to  the 
general  stock  by  the  respective  parties  goes  luiek 
to  the  one,  or  the  heirs  of  the  one,  from  whence 
it  came.  Unless  otherwise  provided  by  agreement 
before  marriage,  the  husband  has  no  preference  over 
the  wife  in  the  remainder  of  the  estate,  called  the 
acquests,  and  consisting  of  property  acquired  during 
the  marriage  from  the  earnings  of  the  joint  labor 
or  capital  of  husband  and  wife.  This  property  is 
treated  as  the  profits  of  a  partnership  between  equals, 
and  not,  as  at  common  law,  as  the  sole  estate  uf 
a  male  superior.  We  look  in  vain  through  the 
various  tinkering  statutes  of  States  settled  from 
Anglo-Saxon  sources  to  find  any  such  fair  and  frank 
recognition  of  the  wife's  equal  services  with  the 
husband  in  accumulating  an  estate. 

At  the  death  of  a  husband,  he  can  by  will  place 
executors  over  the  entire  estate  gathered  in  wedlock. 
If  he  desires  it,  these  executors  can  act  without 
bonds.  This  of  itself  is  a  crime  of  the  first  magni- 
tude ;  for  it  corrupts  society.  Some  men  cannot  bear 
temptations.  How  many  thieves  in  high  places  could 
trace  their  initiation  to  the  threshold  of  dead  men's 
estates  if  they  chose  to  do  so !  How  often  the  latent 


COMPARATIVE    LAW.  19 

spark  of  dishonesty  is  kindled  into  a  flame,  when  the 
opportunity  is  offered,  the  invitation  given,  to  rob 
the  widow  and  the  fatherless !  Partners  in  business 
will  be  honest  with  each  other  —  sometimes ;  but  how 
is  it  when  one  of  them  dies?  One  example  shall 
answer  this  question,  although  thousands  could  be 
added  to  it. 

A  California  gentleman,  possessed  of  a  large  for- 
tune, on  the  eve  of  a  business  visit  to  Mexico,  made 
his  two  partners  the  executors  of  his  will  without 
bonds.  Several  months  later,  news  came  that  the 
man  had  been  shot  as  a  spy.  It  was  during  some 
intestine  outbreak  in  that  chaotic  country.  Then 
(he  probating  commenced,  and  continued  until  his 
family  were  utterly  beggared.  Suddenly,  without 
an  instant's  warning,  he,  the  dead  man,  —  his  mauso- 
leum had  been  a  prison,  —  shot  like  a  comet  athwart 
the  path  of  his  dear  bondless  partners  and  bosom- 
friends!  There  was  consternation,  some  hurried  ex- 
planations, and  then  a  great  hush ;  for  it  was  in  the 
upper  stratum  of  society.  But  the  penniless  widow 
blossomed  into  a  millionnaire's  wife ;  "  and  all  the 
world  wondered  !  " 

Kind  husbands  make  their  wives  the  sole  execu- 
tors of  their  wills  without  bonds,  and  create  them 
guardians  of  their  children.  Create  a  mother  the 
guardian  of  her  offspring !  WHAT  A  CREATION  ! 
The  six-days'  creation,  rib  and  all,  could  not  hold  a 
candle  to  it.  But  this  is  no  excuse  for  the  cruel  arid 
unjust  law  which  wrests  these  natural  God-given 


20  COMPARATIVE    LAW. 

rights  from  a  mother  who  has  been  cursed  all  her  life 
by  an  unkind  husband.  Laws  should  be  protective 
and  general,  not  optional  and  exceptional. 

During  the  present  year  (1877)  I  have  visited  the 
leading  cities  in  every  State  in  New  England,  and 
talked  with  thousands  of  people  upon  the  subject  of 
"  Probate  Confiscation  "  and  the  inequalities  of  the 
laws  generally.  Everywhere  from  Maine  to  Rhode 
Inland  I  met  brave,  just  men  who  sympathized  with 
me  in  my  work.  Everywhere,  even  in  Boston,  I  met 
men  who  said,  "  Our  laws  are  perfect  as  regards  prop- 
erty. Women  are  treated  far  more  liberally  than 
men  are,"  &c.  I  believe  they  are  honest  in  their 
convictions,  and  that  from  their  stand-point  all  looks 
fair.  Still,  although  they  have  fashioned  worn, 
legal  garment  so  deftly,  so  cunningly,  she  t-an  ex- 
claim with  Paulus  Emilius,  who,  being  asked  why  he 
put  away  his  wife  for  no  visible  reason,  replied, 
"  This  shoo  "  (holding  out  his  foot)  "  is  a  neat  shoo,  a 
new  shoo;  and  yet  none  of  you  know  where  it  wring* 
me." 

A  wife  to-day,  in  every  State  in  the  Union,  if  she 
owns  no  separate  property,  and  earns  none  outside 
of  the  domestic  relation,  is  in  the  same  financial  con- 
dition that  the  captured  or  purchased  wives  were  in 
the  dark  ages ;  that  i3,  if  the  husband  survives  her. 
Widowhood  'u  her  only  reprieve.  If  she  has  labored 
five  years  or  forty,  if  she  has  borne  one  child  or  a 
dozen,  if  the  property  accumulated  during  coverture 
be  of  the  value  of  two  dollars  or  of  two  millions,  it 


COMPARATIVE    LAW.  21 

is  all  the  same.  At  her  death  she  cannot  will  away 
a  farthing  of  it,  nor  make  a  lawful  distribution  of 
personal  apparel  or  jewels  ;  she  cannot  place  a  guard- 
ian over  her  minor  children.  Is  a  slave  required  to 
do  more  for  his  master  without  pay  than  all  good 
wives  —  and  the  majority  of  them  are  good — do  for 
their  husbands  and  families  without  pay  ?  A  wife 
works  all  her  life  for  board  and  clothes.  This  is  the 
only  kind  of  an  apprenticeship  which  lasts  a  lifetime. 
In  speaking  of  this  injustice  to  a  prominent  law- 
yer of  Boston,  he  exclaimed,  "  A  wife  earns  no 
money:  she  u  supported  by  the  husband.  What 
does  a  wife  want  to  will  away  a  third  of  her  hus- 
band's estate  for?  What  does  it  matter  to  a  dead 
woman  what  becomes  of  her  thirds  ?  "  —  "  Much"  I 
replied,  —  "just  as  much  as  a  husband  cares  about 
willing  away  his  two  thirds.  She  is  just  as  anxious 
about  the  welfare  of  her  children,  and  would  like  to 
secure  her  thirds  for  their  benefit."  —  "  But  she  has  no 
right  to  do  that,"  he  continued  :  "  she  has  been  sup- 
ported. She  has  spent  the  money  the  husband  has 
earned,  wisely  or  unwisely,  —  most  likely  the  latter  in 
the  majority  of  cases;  for  women  don't  know  the 
value  of  money.  I  earn  the  money,  and  my  wife 
spends  it."  -  —  "  Have  you  children,'  servants,  and  an 
establishment,  sir  ?  "  I  questioned.  "  Yes."  -  -  "  Is 
there  no  labor  in  the  oversight  of  all  this,  and  no 
extra  danger  and  suffering  for  the  wife  and  mother, 
sick-nurse,  and  housekeeper,  that  you,  the  husband, 
father,  and  money-getter,  escape?  Would  you  ex- 


22  COMPARATIVE    LAW. 

change  places  with  this  '  supported '  woman  ?  Ilia 
reply  was,  "  The  subject  is  interminable,  madam,  and 
my  time  presses." 

This  is  a  leonine  partnership,  where  the  wife  dies 
first,  in  which  the  husband  has  all  the  profits,  and 
she  has  none.  Unless  he  desires  it,  nothing  goes  t  > 
hei  children  as  long  as  he  lives.  He  can  squander 
the  property,  or  give  or  will  it  all  away  from  them. 
They  have  no  legal  right  to  restrain  him.  Tlii- 
absolutism.  This  is  a  king  and  subject.  A  wife  and 
mother,  with  her  hand  upon  the  helm  of  the  house- 
hold, with  its  developing  children  and  crude  servants 
and  the  claims  of  society,  is  a  general  in  tin-  firM. 
regards  care,  responsibility,  and  danger;  while  the 
husband  is  a  private  in  the  ranks  in  comparison  with 
her  duties,  with  his  profession  and  business  hour*, 
his  trained  clerks  or  posse  of  workmen,  who  are  not 
" givirf  wamin  "  every  other  day  in  the  seven. 

One  of  the  black  points  of  law  in  this  republic  is 
that  a  married  woman  who  owns  no  separate1  estate 
is  legally  &  pauper.  A  pauper  earns  nothing ;  and  at 
his  death  he  has  nothing  to  bequeath,  because  he  has 
been  supported.  Their  financial  condition  before  the 
law  is  identical. 

A  husband  can,  in  many  of  the  States,  by  deed 
and  other  legal  contrivances  for  the  benefit  of  men 
and  the  financial  depletion  of  women,  make  way  with 
all  the  marriage  property  as  effectively  as  though  ho 
were  a  bachelor,  instead  of  a  husband  and  lather  : 
for  no  laiv  interferes  with  parental  or  piijternul  estates 


COMPARATIVE    LAW.  23 

and  authority.  It  is  only  in  case  of  maternal  rights 
that  an  overwhelming  anxiety  seizes  upon  legislators. 
They  take  precautions  for  the  children  against  the 
mother,  which  are  not  considered  necessary  against 
the  father.  This  is  a  cruel  and  invidious  distinction  : 
for  the  whole  animal  kingdom  bears  evidence  that  a 
mother  is  the  more  tender  and  self-sacrificing  parent 

The  wife  should  have  entire  control  of  her  own 
person,  joint  authority  with  her  husband  over  the 
children  they  nurture  and  over  the  property  they 
accumulate.  There  is  no  reason  why  the  wife  should 
not  have  that  legal  interest  both  in  the  control  and 
in  the  proceeds  of  the  marriage  partnership  to  which 
her  unremitting  toil  entitles  her.  Even  in  those 
classes  where  the  wife's  burden  is  lighter,  it  is  unwise 
to  lessen  her  interest.  Were  the  husband  obliged  to 
yield  to  the  wife  the  confidence  of  a  real  partnership, 
there  would  be  fewer  cases  of  thoughtless  extrava- 
gance on  one  side,  and  of  selfish  personal  expendi- 
ture on  the  other.  In  no  other  business  firm  is  a 
single  partner  given  absolute  control  of  the  common 
property  ;  and,  considering  also  its  additional  bond  of 
affection,  that  feature  of  the  marriage  partnership 
must  be  as  unnecessary  as  it  is  unnatural. 

Never  will  marriage  rest  upon  a  firm  basis  until 
both  parties  to  the  contract  are  equally  independent. 
Independence  will  produce  a  superior  type  of  wife- 
hood  and  motherhood  and  womanhood,  and  divorce- 
suits  will  lessen  in  proportion. 

"  With  most  women  the  natural  dependence  of 


24  COMPARATIVE    LAW. 

minority  is  continued  by  want  of  suitable  employ 
ment  till  marriage.  Then  the  great  majority  of  our 
married  women  become  something  more  than  sell- 
supporting:  they  contribute  their  full  share  to  the 
maintenance  of  a  family,  and  to  the  accumulation  of 
an  estate.  A  few  of  the  class  which  society  has 
relieved  of  all  domestic  service,  without  substituting 
any  worthy  employment  in  its  place,  are  justly 
chargeable  with  frivolity,  extravagance,  and  incom- 
petency.  It  is  chiefly  from  observation  of  this  class 
that  conservative  writers  draw  their  hasty  conclusion 
of  woman's  natural  dependence  :  but  the  mass  of  our 
married  women  are  of  no  such  stamp ;  and,  in  gen- 
eral, the  wife  labors  as  hard  as,  and  more  continu- 
ously than,  the  husband.  It  is  a  notorious  fact,  that 
she  is  frequently  broken  down  by  hard  labor;  he, 
seldom.  On  what  principle,  then,  is  she  deprived  of 
full  legal  equality  with  her  husband?  The  just  rule 
of  all  free  society  recognizes  independence  as  the 
reward  of  self-support ;  but  no  sooner  has  woman,  by 
her  services  as  wife,  earned  her  freedom,  than  the 
law  steps  in,  and  rewards  her  with  servitude.  Then 
dependence  has  its  unavoidable  effect  upon  her.  The 
natural  capacities  of  the  young  wife,  who  is  often  the 
superior  of  her  husband  in  intellect  and  culture, 
never  develop.  As  responsibilities  increase,  his 
judgment  strengthens,  and  his  views  widen.  Her 
acquirements,  on  the  other  hand,  wither  from  disuse, 
her  judgment  is  weakened,  and  her  views  are  nar- 
rowed by  ceaseless  attendance  to  a  routine  of  petty 


COMPARATIVE    LAW.  25 

detail,  and  by  habits  of  reliance  on  the  worldly  wis- 
dom of  her  spouse  and  on  the  spiritual  wisdom  of 
her  pastor.  She  inconsiderately  adopts  and  intensi- 
fies her  husband's  political  and  social  hatreds;  and, 
as  the  married  life  progresses,  the  legal  inferiority 
grows  into  a  real  inferiority.  In  cases  of  peculiar 
hardship,  the  wife's  temper  dulls  into  that  of  a 
drudge,  or  sharpens  into  that  of  a  scold  :  she  submits 
servilely,  or  revolts  noisily  and  unreasonably,  after 
the  manner  of  all  subjects  under  all  despotic  rule. 
Thus,  independence  makes  the  man;  dependence, 
the  woman ;  and  the  result  is  charged  upon  Nature ! 

"  The  married  woman  of  property  has  that  property 
reserved  from  marital  authority,  but  receives  no 
further  relief.  The  married  woman  who  has  no 
property  remains  bound,  as  of  old,  to  labor  for  her 
husband  for  board  wages.  If  the  marriage  venture 
is  successful,  she  is  secured  no  share  in  his  earnings ; 
but,  if  unsuccessful,  she  endures  an  equal  share  of 
his  poverty ;  and,  should  he  die,  she  will  be  confined 
in  the  poor-house,  in  some  States  (Connecticut  for 
one),  if  she  fails  to  support  his  children." 

"  But,"  cry  the  startled  conservatives,  "  make  mar- 
riage a  copartnership,  and  that  bars  a  husband  from 
devising  his  estate."  Ah,  no  !  not  his  half  of  it. 
His  will,  the  same  as  the  will  of  his  wife,  will  take 
effect  at  the  re-marriage  or  death  of  the  survivor. 
During  this  interim  the  executors  could  act  as 
trustees  in  protecting  the  property  from  being 
squandered.  If  this  law  works  well  in  Louisiana,  why 


26  COMPARATIVE    LAW. 

should  it  not  work  well  in  all  the  States  ?  If  it  has 
not  caused  "ruin  and  disaster"  there,  why  should  it 
cause  k<  ruin  and  disaster  "  here  ?  " 

As  a- stepping-stone  to  this  grand  result  1  offer  the 
following  petition :  "That,  until  this  law  shall  take 
effect,  every  widow  may  have  the  legal  right  to  act 
as  one  of  the  executors  of  the  husband's  will,  if  she 
desires  to  do  so,  and  is  not  barred  by  legal  disquali- 
fications." The  law  protects  one-third  or  one-half  of 
the  property  to  her :  now  let  it  go  a  step  farther,  and 
protect  her  in  having  the  careful  supervision  of  that 
"  third  "  or  "  half;  "  and  let  no  woman  have  the  shame- 
facedness  to  plead  ignorance  as  a  disqualification. 

If  women  knew  with  what  utter  contempt  men 
looked  upon  ignorance,  in  them,  of  the  ordinary  con- 
cerns of  e very-day  life,  they  would  study  day  and 
night  until  they  mastered  the  more  important  details 
of  what  affects  them  so  vitally.  Said  a  man  to  me 
in  Hartford,  Conn.,  "  Make  women  more  responsible  ? 
No !  The  most  of  them  are  fools  in  business.  My 
life  is  tormented  out  of  me  by  questions  of  stupid 
women  about  matters  that  an  ordinary  child  ten 
years  old  ought  to  comprehend  at  a  glance." 

"  Lack  of  responsibility  is  just  what  is  the  matter," 
I  replied.  "That  develops  self-respect,  self-poise, 
and  self-reliance.  It  is  one  of  the  very  best  intellect- 
ual tonics.  Men  keep  women  in  leading-strings, 
and  then  growl  when  they  have  to  be  led.  O  man. 
consistent  man  !  how  long  will  it  be  before  the  scales 
drop  from  your  eyes? 


A  BILL  FOR  THE  PROTECTION   OF   WIDOWS.        27 

To  the  Honorable  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Common- 
wealth of  Massachusetts  in  General  Court  assembled. 

The  petition  of  the  undersigned  citizens  of  Massachusetts 
respectfully  represents,  That  widows  are  in  all  common  cases 
entitled  to  a  proportionately  large  share  of  the  property  left  by 
their  deceased  husbands,  and,  where  strangers  are  appointed 
executors  of  their  husbands'  wills,  often  experience  serious  in- 
convenience from  delay  and  expense  in  obtaining  what  the  law 
gives  them. 

Therefore  your  petitioners  pray,  that,  to  remedy  this  grievous 
hardship,  you  will  enact  that  every  widow,  who  has  any  legal 
interest  in  the  property  of  her  deceased  husband  who  has  left 
a  will,  shall  be  an  executor  of  said  will,  if  she  desires  to  accept 
an  executorship,  jointly  with  any  executor  or  executors  named 
therein  who  act  as  such,  with  the  same  powers  and  rights,  and 
on  the  same  terms,  as  are  provided  by  said  will,  and  the  law  for 
any  other  executor  or  executors  named  in  the  will. 

This  enactment  shall  not  bar  the  judge  of  probate  from  ap- 
pointing some  person,  when  he  deems  it  expedient,  to  serve  with 
her  in  the  settlement  of  an  intestate  estate,  or  when  an  executor 
named  in  the  will  declines  to  act  in  that  capacity. 


WM.  T.  BOWDITCH. 
MICAII  DYER,  Jun. 
THOMAS  UUSSELL. 
G.  A.  SOMERBY. 
STILLMAN  B.  ALLEN. 
CHAS.  P.  CURTIS. 
STEPHEN  M.  ALLEN. 
AUGUSTUS  Russ. 
SAM i -EL  E.  SEWELL. 
NATH.  J.  BRADLEE. 
A.  A.  RANNEY. 
WM.  A.  SLMMONDS. 
JAMES  STURGIS. 
JOHN  W.  CANDLEB. 
OTIS  CLAPP. 
RUFUS  S.  FROST. 
E.  R.  MUDGE. 
CHARLES  FRANCIS  ADAMS. 
FRANKLIN  HAVEN. 
CHAS.  C.  BARRY. 
WM.  PERKINS. 
WALDO  HIGGINSON. 
MARSHALL  P.  WILDER. 
CHAS.  G.  DAVIS. 

Rev.  J 


FENNO  TUDOR,  widow. 
L.  MARIA  CHILD. 
SARAH  S.  RUSSELL. 
MARY  MANN.! 
SARAH  H.  MILLS. 
HARRIET  M.  EMERSON. 
MARY  C.  AMES.2 
JACOU  EDWARDS. 
ISAAC  FENNO. 
GEO.  C.  RICHARDSON. 
CHAS.  A.  B.  SHEPARD. 
JOHN  A.  BURNHAM. 

D.  R.  WHITNEY. 

R.  WALDO  EMERSON. 
WM.  LLOYD  GARRISON. 
Rev.  MINOT  J.  SAVAGE. 
Rev.  A.  A.  MINER. 
HENRY  W.  LONGFELLOW. 
HENRY  I.  BOWDITCH,  M.D. 
S.  CABOT,  M.D. 
JAMES  L.  LITTLE. 
Rev.  R.  LAIRD  COLLIER. 
AMOS  A.  LAWRENCE. 

E.  L.  BARNEY. 


FREEMAN  CLARKE. 


1  Widow  of  Horace  Mann. 

1  Widow  of  Isaac  Amee,  late  Probate  Judge  of  Suffolk  County. 


28        A  BILL  FOR  THE  PROTECTION  OF   WIDOWS. 
MEMORIAL 

IK  SUPPORT  OT 

A  BILL  FOR  THE  PROTECTION  OF  WIDOWS. 

Mr.  Chairman,  and  Honorable  Gentlemen  of  the  Probate  and  Chancery 
Committee. 

As  men  of  intelligence,  you  cannot  be  ignorant  of  the  fact 
that  the  laws  affecting  the  rights  of  widows  are  far  from  just; 
that  the  controlling  power  over  the  financial  community  of 
interest,  existing  between  husband  and  wife,  is  vested  solely  in 
the  husband ;  that  in  law  there  is  no  money  value  attached  to 
a  woman's  services  as  wife ;  that,  as  widow,  she  has  no  con- 
trol over  the  property  which  she  has  helped  to  earn,  save  what 
is  delegated  by  husband  or  court. 

This  is  a  grievous  hardship :  therefore  I  pray  that  a  widow, 
when  not  legally  disqualified,  may  be  one  of  the  executors  of 
the  joint  estate  accumulated  during  coverture,  whenever  she 
desires  to  exercise  the  trust.  This  change  involves  no  special 
departure  from  the  present  order  of  things :  for  every  husband 
has  the  right  to  appoint  his  wife  the  executor  of  his  will ;  and, 
if  he  dies  without  making  a  will,  the  Judge  of  Probate  enjoys 
the  same  privilege.  But  in  no  case  is  the  widow  allowed  an 
individual  voice  upon  this  important  subject  which  affects  her 
so  vitally.  She  occupies  the  position  of  a  child  or  an  imbecile. 
Her  lips  are  closed.  She  is  set  aside  by  a  legal  enactment  that 
refuses  to  acknowledge  that  a  woman  who  enters  upon  a  career 
as  wife  —  leaving,  perhaps,  a  remunerative  occupation  —  earns 
money  in  that  capacity. 

**  The  assumption,  that  women  earn  no  money  in  wedlock,  is 
extremely  vicious;  because  it  is  based  on  the  common-law 
theory  of  dependence.  If  property  were  largely  hereditary  in 
this  country,  as  it  is  in  England,  it  would  be  different;  but  it 
is  not:  therefore  the  simple  right  of  the  wife  to  her  separate 


A  BILL  FOR  THE  PROTECTION  OF   WIDOWS.       29 

estate  is  far  from  just;  for  the  accumulations  of  wedlock  are 
still  based  upon  the  common  law  of  dependence,  instead  of 
upon  equity  law,  with  its  underlying  principles  of  independ- 
ence" 

Marriage  is  often  a  business  venture  with  men.  It  is  not 
always  love  alone  that  lures  them  on  to  perpetrate  the  deed ; 
and,  when  they  claim  that  wives  should  be  contented  and  satis- 
fied with  the  love  of  their  husbands,  —  taking  that  uncertain 
quantity  in  payment  for  services  well  and  faithfully  rendered 
as  wife,  mother,  companion,  sick-nurse,  and  housekeeper,  —  they 
do  not  understand  the  situation. 

When  I  hire  a  man-servant  or  a  maid-servant,  I  do  not 
accept  or  reject  their  services  on  the  strength  of  their  affec- 
tional  natures,  but  on  their  ability  to  labor.  And  a  man,  in 
seeking  a  helpmate,  often  exercises  a  like  care.  Said  a  gentle- 
man to  me  who  had  travelled  widely,  seen  much  of  society, 
and  sown  his  "wild  oats"  broadcast,  "When  I  marry,  I  shall 
look  out  for  a  fine  woman,  —  I  mean  by  that  a  fine  animal,  — 
the  same  as  I  would  were  I  purchasing  a  thorough-bred  dog,  or 
horse,  or  bullock.  I  shall  take  good  care  that  no  impure  blood 
is  mingled  with  mine  in  the  veins  of  my  children.  None  of 
your  tendrils  for  me,  if  you  please.  They  are  well  enough 
under  gaslight ;  but,  if  reverses  should  overtake  me,  I  want  a 
wife  that  can  put  her  shoulder  to  the  wheel  without  flinching." 

This  man  spoke  honestly  and  openly  the  real  sentiments  of 
a  large  number  of  marrying  men.  They  do  not  admit  it,  per- 
haps, because  they  have  not  analyzed  their  feelings  upon  the 
subject.  I  am  not  complaining  of  this.  It  is  right  that  both 
should  contribute  toward  the  material  wealth  of  the  household. 
But  supposing,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  the  wife  performs  no  man- 
ual labor :  what  then  ?  If  there  is  no  money  value  in  the  society 
and  companionship  of  a  wife,  then  the  law  is  inconsistent ;  for 
it  is  upon  this  supposition  that  it  allows  the  husband  heavy  "  vin- 
dictive "  damages  in  compensation  for  his  wife's  society,  should 
a  third  party  entice  her  away  from  him.  Is  it  usual  for  single 
women  of  culture  and  refinement  to  serve  as  companions  for 


30        A  BILL  FOR  THE  PROTECTION  OF   WIDOWS. 

simply  their  board  and  clothes  ?  That  is  all  a  wife  gets  for  her 
services,  unless  she  is  widowed.  And  then  a  wife-companion 
bears  children  at  the  risk  of  her  life,  and  oftentimes  at  the  ruin 
of  her  health.  This  duty,  like  love,  is  priceless.  I  know  of  a 
case  where  a  bachelor  offered  a  woman  whom  he  admired 
twenty-five  thousand  dollars  if  she  would  bear  him  a  child. 
But  it  was  declined ;  not  on  account  of  losing  caste,  for  she 
was  a  woman  of  the  world,  the  same  as  he  was  a  man  of  the 
world,  —  they  stood  on  the  same  plane,  —  but  because  she 
would  not  risk  her  life  and  health,  and  endure  the  pain,  for 
that  sum  of  money. 

It  is  not  fashion  and  frivolity  alone  which  create  a  distaste 
for  child-bearing.  Love  of  life  and  health,  and  a  dread  of 
physical  suffering,  is  by  far  the  greater  obstacle.  I  believe  that 
every  true  woman  —  I  speak  from  experience  —  likes  to  ve:ir 
the  matchless  crown  of  motherhood.  She  may  not  desire  to 
have  a  large  family  of  children ;  deeming  it  wiser  to  add  to  the 
world's  population  a  less  number,  but  of  a  superior  quality, 
and  thus  develop  a  nobler  type  of  manhood. 

Some  people  claim  that  because  this  law,  which  puts  all 
power  in  the  hands  of  the  husband,  is  more  than  a  thousand 
years  old,  that  it  should  not  be  changed;  that  it  should  be 
regarded  with  a  sort  of  filial  piety,  and  clung  to  like  some  rich 
acquisition  which  no  one  has  a  right  to  touch.  To  them  an- 
tiquity is  synonymous  with  wisdom,  and  every  improvement  is 
a  dangerous  innovation.  If  laws,  like  wine  and  men,  improved 
with  age,  there  might  be  some  sense  in  clinging  to  them ;  but 
they  do  not.  It  is  a  degradation  to  be  governed  by  laws  which 
were  made  during  the  middle  ages,  —  a  period  of  ignorance, 
ferocity,  and  licentiousness;  a  period  when  injuries  were  unre- 
dressed,  crime  unpunished,  and  superstition  unrebuked.  There 
can  be  no  stronger  evidence  against  a  law  than  its  age  and 
antiquity.  Laws  should  keep  step,  by  constant  revision,  with 
the  march  of  the  centuries.  Woman's  social  and  intellectual 
progress  has  outstripped  her  legal  progress  :  therefore  much 
that  pertains  to  her  best  good  is  out  of  balance.  The  trinity 


A  BILL  FOR  THE  PROTECTION  OF   WIDOWS.        31 

must  walk  hand  in  hand,  if  the  real  welfare  of  mankind  would 
be  conserved. 

The  inconsistency  of  a  law  which  gives  with  one  hand  arid 
withholds  with  the  other  must  be  seen  at  a  glance.  It  gives 
a  widow  the  third  of  an  estate,  but  allows  a  husband  to  appoint 
executors  who  have  the  absolute  control  of  this  third ;  and  the 
daily  records  of  the  press  of  the  country  reveal  how  that  trust 
is  often  betrayed  by  embezzlement  and  larceny,  because  the 
hands  which  carry  off  the  plunder  are  law-hidden.  This  state 
of  things  corrupts  society ;  for  it  is  a  tacit  invitation  to  steal, 
especially  when  executors  are  appointed  to  serve  without  bonds, 
as  they  often  are.  There  are  thousands  of  thieves  in  high 
places  who  can  trace  their  first  downward  step  to  the  settlement 
of  dead  men's  estates.  In  their  initiation  in  wrong-doing  they 
betrayed  the  confidence  reposed  in  them,  committed  fraud  upon 
the  living,  dishonored  the  memory  of  the  dead,  and  paved  the 
way  for  their  own  destruction. 

You  may  claim,  gentlemen,  that,  in  case  of  malfeasance,  a 
widow  has  legal  redress.  Ah,  yes !  she  has  in  one  sense  ;  but 
litigation  is  an  expensive  luxury,  and  she  has  no  money  per- 
haps to  prove  that  the  executors  are  derelict  in  duty.  It  is  an 
inside  view  which  discloses  the  situation ;  and  that  is  seldom 
accorded  her.  Not  until  lawyers,  courts,  and  judges  are  omnis- 
cient, can  they  know  what  is  being  done  for  the  best  interest 
of  an  estate  during  the  progress  of  its  settlement.  The  actors 
alone  are  behind  the  scenes.  The  court  is  the  audience.  What 
I  ask  for  the  widow  is,  that  she  may  be  an  actor  instead  of  a 
spectator ;  for  it  is  a  stanch  old  maxim,  that,  if  one  would  be 
well  served,  he  must  serve  himself. 

A  widow  with  executor  guardians  over  her  property  walks 
the  earth  with  the  ever-conscious  weight  of  a  dead  hand  upon 
her,  which  is  stronger  and  more  potent  than  her  living  will.  If 
she  offends  the  all-powerful  executors,  she  may  be  kept  upon 
the  rack  of  suspense  for  weeks,  months,  and  years,  beyond  the 
allottee,  time  for  the  settlement  of  the  estate.  This  is  cruelty 
to  animals,  and  should  come  under  the  statutory  laws  created 
for  the  protection  of  the  lower  order. 


32        A  BILL  FOR  THE  PROTECTION  OF   WIDOWS. 

The  law  as  it  now  stands  protects  the  widow  in  her  thirds. 
It  is  arbitrary  on  this  point.  Why  not  go  one  step  farther,  and 
give  her  the  right  to  have  the  careful  supervision  of  these 
thirds  ?  The  benefit  resulting  from  such  a  law  would  be  incal- 
culable. You  may  say  that  few  are  qualified  to  perform  the 
trust.  True,  undoubtedly,  in  some  cases ;  but  the  right  to  exer- 
cise a  dormant  faculty  develops  that  faculty.  Responsibility 
is  one  of  the  greatest  educators.  Self-reliance  and  self-govern- 
ment are  the  spring  and  source  of  all  real  progress.  If  wives 
knew  that  this  right  could  not  be  wrested  from  them,  they 
would  make  themselves  intelligent  upon  the  subject.  They 
would  keep  abreast  with  financial  affairs,  and  shape  their  ex- 
penditures accordingly,  thereby  averting  many  a  failure,  and 
by  their  ready  aid  and  counsel  bridge  over  many  a  disastrous 
business  chasm.  The  timely  advice  of  a  wife  has  saved  many  a 
man  from  ruin.  What  business  firm  would  expect  to  prosper  if 
the  head  partner  refused  to  counsel  with  his  co-laborer,  but 
allowed  him  to  spend  all  the  money  he  could  get,  not  knowing 
a  thing  about  the  strength  of  the  bank-account  or  the  success 
of  the  enterprise?  Would  such  an  establishment  prosper? 
No !  And,  what  is  more,  no  one  would  expect  it  to  prosper.  It 
would  be  the  laughing-stock  of  the  community  where  it  was 
located.  And  yet  this  is  precisely  the  condition  of  the  marriage 
firm  to-day ;  and,  when  disaster  overtakes  it,  the  blame  is  too 
often  attached  to  the  innocent. 

One  gentleman  when  asked  to  sign  the  petition  said,  u  If  you 
secure  the  widow  an  executorship,  why  not  do  the  same  by  the 
children  and  other  heirs  ?  "  —  "  For  this  reason,"  I  replied :  "  the 
widow-mother,  in  the  most  of  cases,  has  richly  earned  her  thirds, 
and  therefore  should  not  be  kept  on  the  .same  plane  with  her 
children.  The  child  earns  its  father,  on  an  average,  far  less 
than  it  costs  him,  from  the  time  of  its  birth  till  it  arrives  at 
majority.  Such  is  not  the  case  with  the  wife.  Most  women 
marry  at  maturity,  and  spend  the  prime  of  their  lives  in  the 
service  of  their  husbands.  They  often  work  more  hours  a  day 
than  the  hired  servant ;  and,  were  that  labor  recompensed  as  the 


A  BILL  FOR  THE  PROTECTION  OF    WIDOWS.        33 

labor  of  women  other  than  wives  is  recompensed,  it  would 
secure  them  a  handsome  support  for  their  declining  years.  But 
the  law  offers  a  wife  no  such  recompense ;  for  whatever  she 
earns  in  the  service  of  the  husband  belongs  to  him  absolutely. 
Is  this  just?  Should  not  all  persons  be  protected  in  their 
industry  ? 

"  Why  a  fortune  built  up  by  the  joint  effort  of  two  persons 
should  be  held,  in  law,  to  belong  exclusively  to  one  of  them,  is 
beyond  my  powers  of  comprehension,  unless  the  enactment  is 
grounded  solely  on  the  survival  of  the  strongest. 

"  Then,  again,  the  widow  is  a  legal  heir  to  the  estate,  while 
the  children  are  not,  (what  a  law  which  allows  a  father  by 
devisement  to  beggar  his  offspring!)  and  she  should  not  be 
classed  with  other  heirs  who  have  contributed  nothing  towards 
the  acquirement  of  the  property.  Her  superior  claim  is  but  a 
just  recognition  of  services  rendered." 

Many  prominent  lawyers  have  said  to  me,  "  We  always  ad- 
vise men,  who  consult  us  upon  the  subject,  to  appoint  their 
wives  their  executors,  and  also  advise  widows  to  serve  as  ad- 
ministrators." Men  in  the  profession  understand  the  value  of 
the  position. 

So  long  as  the  law  invites  a  husband  to  set  aside  his  wife 
like  an  imbecile,  so  long  will  she  be  treated  like  a  child,  under 
the  cover  of  "  protection."  It  is  a  mistaken  idea,  that  society 
will  not  prosper  unless  one  half  of  its  adult  population  is 
watched  over  and  protected  by  the  other  half,  at  nearly  every 
turn  in  life.  Self-protection  is  pure  gold,  whilst  restrictive 
protective  law,  as  all  history  demonstrates,  is  pure  dross. 

What  have  I  sought  to  prove  ?  This  much  :  That  the  law, 
as  it  now  stands,  is  unjust;  that  it  is  unnatural;  that  it  is  in- 
consistent ;  that  it  fosters  ignorance ;  that  it  invites  to  plunder ; 
that  it  corrupts  society ;  that  it  needs  revision. 

Do  I  expect  this  bill,  for  the  protection  of  widows,  to  pass  ? 
Certainly  I  do  ;  for  between  the  extremes  of  conservatism  and 
radicalism  there  is  a  class,  by  no  means  small,  of  the  alert  and 
the  sagacious,  who  respond  quickly  and  heartily  to  the  progress 


34       A  BILL  FOR  THE  PROTECTION  OF   WIDOWS. 

of  events.  They  accept  what  has  been  accomplished,  turn 
their  backs  to  the  past,  and  are  ready  to  go  forward  with  the 
new  tasks  which  are  pressing  upon  them.  They  are  the  leaven 
that  quickens  the  whole  mass;  and  to  this  element,  feeling 
secure  with  the  radicals,  I  appeal.  If  they  support  the  bill,  its 
provisions  must  be  adopted,  and  become  a  law  of  Massachu- 
setts. A  noble  precedent  I  to  be  quickly  followed  by  the  other 
States  in  New  England,  and  elsewhere  throughout  the  Repub- 
lic. 

Very  respectfully  submitted  to  the  generous  consideration  of 
this  honorable  committee  by 

MRS.  J.  W.  STOW, 

SAN  FRANCISCO,  CAL. 
STATE  HOUSE,  BOSTON,  Feb.  6,  1878. 

The  passage  of  the  bill  was  most  earnestly  and  ably  urged  by  Sena- 
tor  Joseph  S.  Ropes,  who  took  charge  of  it,  Hon.  Samuel  E.  Sewall, 
William  Lloyd  Garrison,  and  others;  but  it  did  not  pass,  for  thia 
reason:  the  great  mass  of  the  people  have  not  thought  upon  the  sub- 
ject,  and  discussed  its  merits.  Public  sentiment  must  be  aroused,  ere 
legislators  will  act. 


APPENDIX. 


THE    STOW    BILL, 


ENTITLED 


"  Arc  Axrr  FOR  THE  PROTECTION  OF  WIDOWS." 

SECTION  J.  When  a  man  dies  leaving  a  last  will  and  testament 
wherein  ht  has  appointed  executors  to  the  exclusion  of  his  widow, 
then,  in  all  such  cases,  the  surrogate  of  the  county,  wherein  said  will 
shall  be  probated,  shall,  on  application  of  the  widow  of  the  deceased, 
grant  and  issue  letters  testamentary,  to  said  widow,  if  she  is  legally 
competent  and  not  otherwise  objectionable,  in  the  same  manner  as 
though  she  had  been  named  in  the  will,  she  to  be  vested  with  the 
same  powers  and  bound  by  the  same  obligations  under  said  will  as 
they  are,  and  such  widow  shall  have  the  sole  guardianship  of  the 
persons  of  her  minor  children,  she  being  in  every  respect  qualified  and 
approved  by  the  proper  court  having  jurisdiction. 

SECTION  2.  After  the  payment  of  all  debts,  and  the  proper  charges 
against  the  estate,  one-third  of  the  personal  property  left  by  a 
deceased  husband,  shall,  in  all  cases,  belong  to  his  widow  absolutely. 

PETITION  IN  SUPPORT  OF  THE  BILL. 

To  the  Honorable  Senate  and  Assembly  : 

The  petition  of  the  undersigned  citizens  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
respectfully  represents  :  That  a  widow  is  entitled  to  a  proportionately 
large  share  of  the  property  left  by  her  deceased  husband,  and  that 
where  men  are  appointed,  to  her  exclusion,  executors  of  his  last  will 
and  testament,  she  often  experiences  serious  inconveniences  from 
delay  and  expense  in  obtaining  what  the  law  allows  her.  Therefore, 
your  petitioners  pray,  that  as  a  simple  act  of  justice,  you  will  enact 
that  no  last  will  and  testament  made  by  a  deceased  husband  shall  bar 
the  right  of  his  widow,  when  she  is  legally  competent  and  not  other- 
wise objectionable,  from  having  an  active  vo.ce  in  the  settlement  of 
the  estate ;  that  she,  upon  application  to  the  surrogate  of  the  county 
wherein  the  last  will  and  testament  of  her  deceased  husband  is  pro- 
bated, may  have  letters  testamentary  granted  and  issued  to  her,  if  she 
is  legally  competent  and  not  otherwise  objectionable,  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  executors  named  therein,  anil  that  in  every  respect  she 
be  vested  with  the  same  powers  and  bound  by  the  same  obligations  as 
they  are ;  and  that  such  widow  shall  have  the  sole  guardianship  of  the 
persons  of  her  minor  children,  she  being  in  every  respect  Qualified  and 
approved  by  the  court  having  proper  jurisdiction.  And  your  peti- 
tioners further  pray  that  after  the  payment  of  all  debts  and  proper 
charges  against  the  estate,  one-third  of  all  the  personal  property 


288 


APPENDIX. 


left  by  a  deceased  husband  shall,  in 
absolutely. 

GEORGE  WILLIAM  CTJBTIS, 

HBNET  W.  BELLOWS, 

J.  S.  SHULTZ, 

HENRY  BERGH, 

A.  V.  STOUT, 
WM.  A.  HAUL, 
PETER  COOPER, 

O.  B.  FROTHINGHAM, 
JAMES  W.  SIMONTON, 
OSWALD  OTTEHDOBFEB, 

B.  F.  TRACY, 

A.  A.  KEDFIELD, 
T.  W.  HOLCOMB. 

M.   V.   MCDANIEL, 

A.  P.  VAN  GIKSEN, 
S.  L.  CALDWELL, 
J.  BACKUS, 
CYRUS  MACY, 
DANIEL  W.  GUERNSEY, 

C.  SWAN, 
JAMES  MAKIN, 
JOHN  F.  SMYTH, 
HENRY  L.  LAMB, 
JAMES  Me  WADE, 
A.  VAN  ALLEN, 
H.  R.  PIERSON, 
W.  C.  LITTLE, 
DAVID  A.  THOMPSON, 
THURLOW  WEED  BARNES, 
JOHN  E.  BRADLEY, 

A.  B.  PRATT, 
S.  J.  BANCROFT, 
W.  S.  PADDOCK, 
V.  P.  HINMAN, 
F.  C.  CALLICUT, 
E.  NEWCOMB, 
DAVID  A.  THOMPSON, 
MARTIN  D.  CONWAY, 
JAMES  A.  MCKOWAN, 
ANSON  J.  UPSON, 
HENRY  DARLING, 
R.  M.  TOWNSEND, 

RO3T.    H.    McLELLAN, 

HARVEY  J.  KING, 
M.  T.  CLOUGH, 
WILLIAM  KEMP, 
CHARLES  I.  BAKER, 
C.  L.  ALDEN, 
J.  M.  LANDON, 

E.    F.    BULLARD, 

R.  A.  PARMENTER, 

H.  W.  DAY, 

C.  C.  PARMELEE, 

A.  E.  POWERS, 

DANIEL  D.  BUCKLIN,  M.D., 

H.  B.  NIMS  &  Co., 

GEO.  C.  BALDWIN, 

W.    E.    KlSSELBURGH, 

THOMAS  COLEMAN, 
R.  M.  HASBROUCK, 


all  cases,  belong  to  his  widow 

CHARLOTTE  FOWLER  WELLS, 

LAURA  CARTER  HOLLOWAY, 

CLEMKNCE  S.  LOZIKR,  1LD., 

E.  B.  WHITNEY, 

JOSEPHINE  SHAW  LOWELL, 

JULIA  A.  RAY, 

HJ.I.KS  W.  WEBSTER,  M.DM 

M.  M.  EASTMAN, 

ANNIE  C.  HOWLAND,  M.D., 

BKTSY  HART, 

LEWIA  C.  SMITH, 

HELEN  MII.LKK, 

LAURA  G.  SHKARMAN, 

ELIZABETH  CXJFTOX, 

MARIA  M.  WKLCH, 

AM  MI   CUTTEB, 

KLI/.AHETH  L.  LEWIS, 

ZEBULON  FKBRIH, 

JAMES  FRAZE  GLUCK, 

W.  R.  CURIIS, 

ALBERT  JONES, 

W.  C.  BETA  NT, 

JAMES  B.  &  H.  B.  GBEBM, 

O.    H.    M  MOH.M.I-, 

J.  W.  TYLJEB, 

DAVID  GREY, 

THAD.  C.  DAVIS, 

SHELDEN  PEASE, 

DAVID  F.  DAY, 

A.  G.  RICE, 

L.  VAN  BOKKELAN. 

THEO.  F.  ROCHESTER,  M.D., 

S.  SCHEW, 

WM.  EDWARD  FOSTEB, 

J.  C.  HARBISON, 

GEO.  W.  TIKFT, 

W.  D.  SHUABT, 

H.  R.  SELDKN, 

W.  MARTIN  JOKES, 

J.  SULLIVAN, 

SETH  H.  TERRY, 

D.  L.  CRITTENDEN, 

CHAS.  E.  FITCH, 

JAMES  B.  SHAW, 

FRANCIS  S.  RKW, 

HARMON  C.  RIGOS, 

WM.  CORNING, 

D.  W.  POWEBS, 
JAMES  VICK, 

M.  B.  ANDERSON, 
HIRAM  SIBLEY, 

E.  O.  HAVKX. 
NELSON  MILLARD, 
MOSES  SITMNEK, 
CARROL  E.  SMITH, 

H.    RlK(,l  L. 

CHAS.  E.  IDE, 

W.   P.    GOODELLE, 

GEO.  N.  KENNEDY, 
JOHN  L.  KINO. 


THE  WIDOW'S  PORTION.  301 

THE    WIDOWS    POKTIOK 

CHAPTER  470,  LAWS  OP  NEW  YOBK. 

AN  ACT  to  amend  section  nine,  title  three,  chapter  six,  part  two  of 
the  Revised  Statutes. 

Passed  May  18,  1874  ;  three-fifths  being  present. 

The  people  of  the  State  of  New  York,  represented  in  Senate  and 
Assembly,  do  enact  as  follows  : 

SECTION  1.  Section  nine,  title  third,  chapter  six,  part  two  of  the 
Hi-vised  .Statutes  is  hereby  amended  so  as  to  read  as  follows: 

$  9.  Where  a  man  having  a  family  shall  die,  leaving  a  widow  or  a 
minor  child  or  children,  the  following  articles  shall  not  be  deemed 
assets,  but  shall  be  included  and  stated  in  the  inventory  of  the  estate, 
without  being  appraised : 

1.  All  spinning-wheels,  weaving-looms,  one  knitting-machine,  one 
sewing-machine,  and  stoves  put  up  or  kept  for  use  by  his  family. 

2.  The  family  Bible,  family  pictures  and  school-books,  used  by  or  in 
the  family  of  such  deceased  person,  and  books  not  exceeding  in  value 
fifty  dollars,  which  were  kept  and  used  as  part  of  the  family  library, 
before  the  decease  of  such  person. 

3.  All  sheep  to  the  number  of  ten,  with  their  fleeces,  and  the  yarn 
and  cloth  manufactured  from  the  same,  one  cow,  two  swine,  and  the 
pork  of  such  swine,  and  necessary  food  for  such  swine,  sheep  or  cow 
for  sixty  days,  and  all  necessary  provisions  and  fuel  for  such  widow, 
or  child,  or  children,  for  sixty  days,  after  the  death  of  such  deceased 
person 

4.  All   necessary  wearing   apparel,    beds,    bedsteads  and  bedding, 
necessary  cooking  utensils,  the  clothing  of  the  family,  the  clothes  of 
the  widow  and  her  ornaments  proper  for  her  station ;  one  table,  six 
chairs,    twelve   knives  and    forks,    six   plates,   twelve  tea-cups   and 
saucers,  one  sugar-dish,  one  milk-pot,  one  tea-pot  and  twelve  spoons, 
and  also  other  household  furniture,  which  shall  not  exceed  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  dollars  in  value. 

SEC.  4.  When  a  man  having  a  family  shall  die,  leaving  a  widow  or 
minor  child  or  children,  there  shall  be  inventoried  by  the  appraisers  and 
set  apart  for  the  use  of  such  widow  or  for  the  use  o£  such  widow  and 
child  or  children,  or  for  the  use  of  such  child  or  children,  in  the  man- 
ner now  prescribed  by  the  ninth  Section  of  Title  third,  Chapter  sixth 
of  Part  second  of  the  Revised  Statutes,  necessary  household  pro- 
visions or  other  personal  property  in  the  discretion  of  said  appraisers, 
to  the  value  of  not  exceeding  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  in  addition 
to  the  articles  of  personal  property  now  exempt  from  appraisal  by 
said  Section.— 1842,  Chap.  157,  Sec.  2. 

SECTION  1.  Every  father,  whether  of  full  age  or  a  minor,  of  a  child 
likely  to  be  born,  or  of  any  living  child  under  the  age  of  twenty-one 
years  and  unmarried,  may,  by  his  deed  or  last  will  duly  executed, 
dispose  of  the  custody  and  tuition  of  such  child  during  its  minority, 
or  for  any  less  time,  to  any  person  or  persons  in  possession  or  remain- 
der.—(Sixth  edition  Revised  Statutes,  1875,  Vol.  3,  page  167.) 


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